Back in 2012, LG Display was awarded a project by the Korean government to develop 60" UHD flexible and transparent panels by 2017. Later in February 2014, LGD said it is still on target for this project, and that it will show 17" flexible panel prototypes by the end of 2014.
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True to its word, today the company announced that it has developed 18" rollable OLEDs and also 18" transparent OLEDs. LG says that it has acquired the fundamental technologies required to lead the large-size flexible and transparent display market. These are the largest flexible and transparent OLEDs ever unveiled!
The flexible OLED features a resolution of 1200x810 (80 PPI), and a curvature radius of 30R. It can be rolled up to a radius of 3 cm without hurting the display. As you can see in the photos, this is quite rollable. The OLED was deposited on a "high molecular substance-based polyimide film" backplane.
Regarding the transparent panel, LG did not reveal any technical details besides saying that the transmittance is 30% - saying that it beats current transparent LCDs (that achieve only about 10%). LG developed technologies that enabled them to reduce the haze to only 2% - saying that this was a breakthrough development.
In-Byung Kang, LG's R&D center head, said that LG intends to lead the future display market, and they are still confident that they will be able to develop a 60" UHD flexible and transparent OLED by 2017. The 2017 panel will have a transmittance of over 40% and a curvature radius of 100R.
In February, LGD said (based on IHS DisplayBank research) that by 2018, the market for large flexible displays will reach $6 billion, and this will grow to over $77 billion by 2025. The transparent flexible display market will reach $131 billion in revenue by 2023 (larger than the 'generic display market').
