PowerFilm, a company that designs and produces flexible electronics and thin flexible solar panels, provided a live demo of its roll to roll technology during this week for government employees.
The demonstration provided details about the only backplane array technology developed so far for a flexible display manufactured by combining a full roll to roll process with a front plane driver to develop the complete working display. A backplane driver is a transistor array that follows instructions from a computer to switch the individual pixels on and off.
PowerFilm Phicot Roll to Roll Flexible Electronics
The key benefits offered by this technology are attributed to the fact that the backplane driver is thin, durable, lightweight, and conformable. Moreover, the backplane driver is manufactured with cost-effective manufacturing technique at scale, thus facilitating the manufacture of products having the same benefits.
The company has further expanded its main roll to roll manufacturing capability for the development of flexible electronics. PowerFilm has developed the technology with its subsidiary Phicot and by joining hands with the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and Hewlett-Packard (HP).
ARL has offered nearly $5.5m in funding to PowerFilm for the development of a self powered flexible display for soldiers by integrating PowerFilm's flexible display technology with its thin film solar material to be used for self-powered applications. Other potential applications include products such as a rugged easy-to-install briefing board for military purposes, display screens, billboards, ebooks and other consumer electronics.
PowerFilm has developed roll to roll flexible electronics for almost 10 years. For the past five years, the company has concentrated on the development of flexible display technology. The company plans to achieve continual improvement of yields, funding and selection of site for the pilot manufacturing plant.