OLEDs on planarized fabric substrate

South Korea researchers have developed textile OLEDs that could benefit clothing makers in the future.

One of the advantages of OLED displays is that they are much more flexible than LCDs. This attribute has been put to use in different ways, most notably to make the curved edges on the Samsung Galaxy Edge series. Now, South Korea researchers have developed OLEDs that can be deposited on a textile substrate. Wearable displays have not been especially sophisticated so far, with some manufacturers sticking LED lights on shirts. This new OLED technology, however, could lead to better and more comfortable displays on clothing.

The work on the OLEDs was a joint venture between KAIST and Kolon Glotech. OLEDs are flexible, but their usual plastic substrates are generally not durable. To solve this, researchers developed a way of using several-micrometer-thick fibers to create the OLEDs on textiles. As fabrics are rough, they are subjected to planarization, a process of smoothing surfaces through chemical mechanical polishing for them to enable vacuum thermal deposition.

The result of the research is OLEDs that can last 1,000 hours of use or idle for more than 3,500 hours. The technology is clearly still limited. People generally want over 1,000 hours from their clothes, especially if they are paying higher prices for wearable technology. Even so, this is still a big step forward for OLED technology, and could change the market for wearable displays. Other innovators would no doubt find more uses for these kinds of OLEDs.