Roll-Up, Roll-Up: Get Your Flexible LCD Display Screens Here!

I like large displays on mobile devices for reading e-mails, e-books, and viewing detailed pictures. But I also like to tuck those devices into my pocket. Only the bigger the gadget’s screen the more it outgrows my pocket size.

Now a hallmark feature of these screens — their rigidity — is changing. New technologies are developing that make displays flexible, foldable or even as rollable as newspaper, so that large screens can be unfurled from small containers.

One new mobile device, the ‘Readius,’ is designed mainly for reading books, magazines, newspapers and mail, is the size of a standard cellphone. Flip it open and a screen tucked within the housing opens to a 5-inch diagonal display.

The screen looks just like a liquid crystal display, but can bend so flexibly that it can wrap around a finger.

The market for flexible displays is likely to grow rapidly. Flexible displays are the crucial enabling technology for a new generation of portable devices. Flexible displays offer the advantages of easy, relatively inexpensive and safe shipping and handling, compared with conventional rigid screens.