Scientists from Australia have managed to develop a much thinner display technology than the screens of existing smartphones. Thanks to its incredible thinness and flexibility, this new technology can be folded into rolls just like newspapers.
Scientists from RMIT University in Australia produced a new material that can be used in display technology while working on indium tin oxide used on mobile screens. The highly conductive material was pretty fragile at the start of the work. Researchers understood that the fragility of the material was due to thickness, making the material thinner and more flexible.
“We took an old material and transformed it to create an extremely slim and flexible new version,” said Dr. Torben Daeneke, the team’s chief researcher who developed the new display material. Daeneke stated that the new material can be produced cheaper and more efficiently than the touch screen technology used now.
Researchers have developed a method called liquid metal printing process to achieve new display technology. In the liquid metal printing process, indium tin alloy heated to 200 degrees Celsius is used to form nano-thin layers. However, the unique fineness is that the substance has a different crystal structure.
Full flexibility is the main feature of the new material, but 5 to 10 percent light absorption in ordinary conductive glass goes down to 0.7 percent in the new material. Less light absorption causes less energy to be spent on screens where the material is used. Speaking about the energy savings the material will offer, Daeneke says it will save 10 percent battery life on devices where the new material will be used.
The research team, which developed the new material, also created a touch screen that works with the material. The material developed by the team may not only be used to develop smartphone screens. New material can also be used on tablets, television screens, advanced touch screens.
Dr., the leader of the research team from RMIT University. “Completely flexible, conductive and transparent material cannot be produced outside of our new liquid metal method,” said Torben Daeneke. Researchers are now looking for industry partners to produce the material they have developed.