Philips Pledges Roll-up Display in 2 Years

By Richard Ball -- Electronics Weekly, 3/1/2005

Philips Polymer Vision says it has developed a 5- inch roll-up display with contrast similar to that of plain paper.

The company, a newly created division within The Netherlands' Royal Philips Electronics, said the 320 pixel by 240 pixel (QVGA) display should be in production within two years.
 
When not in use the 100 micron-thick display can be rolled up into a housing with a radius of just 7.5mm, according to Philips. The company says that each pixel can produce up to 4 gray scales, and that the contrast ratio is adequate for daytime viewing.

To reduce power consumption and increase battery life, the display uses a bi-stable material from E Ink. E Ink is a Massachusetts-based company involved in the emerging flexible display industry. It also lent its display technology to Cambridge, U.K.-based Plastic Logic to create an active-matrix flexible display as well. Philips and Sony also utilized E Ink's display tech for Sony's electronic book reader, Librié, launched in Japan last year.

Philips Polymer Vision said it is currently looking for partners to move towards volume manufacturing, and third party investment.

Electronics Weekly is the London-based sister pub of Electronic News.