The future of tech in just one word: plastics

As the technology catches on over the next several years and prices begin to fall, Mr. Gasman and others imagine a generation of huge ultra high-definition televisions that roll up after use. Thin plastic sheets on office walls may do double duty as monitors. OLED wallpaper could light a room.

The OLED display and lighting market could be worth $10.9 billion by 2012, and $15.5 billion by 2014, according to a NanoMarkets report.

An OLED’s ability to go on a flexible surface – plastic or metal foil, for example – is a major selling point for those seeking improved portability. (OLEDs are already common on cellphones and PDAs throughout Asia.)

Universal Display Corp. in Ewing, N.J., is working with the US Department of Defense on what it calls the “Universal Communication Device.”

Janice Mahon, the company’s vice president of technology commercialization, describes it as an iPhone with a roll-out screen. Rather than lugging numerous maps around, soldiers could one day strap a lightweight, rugged display device to their thigh. The idea: Keep miniaturizing the electronics while maximizing the display.

Flexible displays – LG Display and Sony have prototypes – will likely be on store shelves in the next five years, although they probably won’t be widely affordable for a few more years after that, says Ms. Mahon.

But, she says, “it used to be a matter of if; now it’s a matter of when.”

Thin screens, wide market
The “cool” factor aside, an often overlooked advantage of plastics-based electronics is the potential ease of fabrication, says Gasman.

Making plastic displays doesn’t require parts so much as base materials. So, the electronics can be “printed” roll-to-roll like a newspaper, rather than assembled piece-by-piece like the much more energy intensive process that’s used for LCD displays. This feature will likely reduce OLED manufacturing costs considerably in the future, he says.

DuPont, for example, has spent years perfecting a “nozzle” printer that could cheaply and efficiently deposit the materials on a variety of surfaces, says William Feehery, global business director of DuPont OLEDs in Santa Monica, Calif.

“We are currently making plans to commercialize,” he says. “Our aim is to make it really widespread.”
And then there’s light. In the US, lighting accounts for 8 percent of the nation’s total energy consumption and 22 percent of the electricity used.

The US Department of Energy recently entered a nearly $2 million, two-year contract with Universal Display to develop OLED lighting panels.

They’ll be thin, eventually more efficient than even compact fluorescents (without the mercury, too), and can either be mounted or printed onto many surfaces, says Mahon. One day soon, windows that are transparent by day may emit light by night.

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