[url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8214363.stm[/url]
[quote]
The technology behind giant video billboards can now be made into flexible and even transparent displays.
These could be used to create brakelights that fit the curves of a car or medical diagnostics that envelop a patient like a blanket.
It has been made possible by a new technique, outlined in Science, for manufacturing so-called inorganic LEDs.
The new method allows these tiny light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to be attached to materials such as glass or rubber.
"[This] enables new kinds of 'form factors' that would allow you to put lighting sources on curved surfaces or in corners, places where you can't put light sources nowadays," Professor John Rogers of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign told BBC News.
There are two types of light-emitting diode (LED) technology, inorganic and organic.
The vast majority of consumer electronics use the inorganic version.
For a square centimetre of the material these are 400 times brighter than their organic cousins.
"If you look at the billboard displays that exist already, they're inorganic LED based," said Professor Rogers.
"You can see them on a bright sunny day; it would be impossible to generate that kind of brightness out of an organic LED."
When arrays of inorganic LED's are used - such as those in billboard displays - they are made in a large wafer which is sawn into bits.
Each bit is then placed individually by a robot arm, making the production of large or dense arrays complex.
Organic LEDs (OLEDs) on the other hand have been introduced into some consumer electronics such as televisions.
They are in theory easier to manufacture because they can be made individually smaller, processed in high quantities and spread out in thin films that are easy to manipulate and connect electrically.
However, they are not as robust as inorganic LEDs, and must be encapsulated because they are sensitive to oxygen and moisture.
Professor Rogers and his colleagues have now devised a method that in theory comprises the best of both worlds - bright, robust inorganic LEDs that can be processed en masse.
The approach is able to make thin inorganic LEDs in high quantities in such a way that they can be cut up by bathing them in a strong acid.
The separated elements can then be picked up with a "stamp", with holes cut precisely to size for the elements, and then placed on a wide array of surfaces, from glass to plastic to rubber.
The devices can be placed sparsely enough that a bright layer of them is practically transparent.
"Because you can get away with very low coverage by area, it opens up the possibility of making something that's see-through," Professor Rogers explained.
He said that the nearer-term applications for the approach will be in general lighting or in the illumination of instrument panels, but the group is working toward perfecting the application.
"Displays remain the ultimate goal - we don't need a new law of physics to enable it, it's just more of an engineering question," he said.[/quote]
Basically they're like the super-flexibled OLEDs, but brighter.
Energy-efficient?
[QUOTE=Shadow187(FP);16853613]Energy-efficient?[/QUOTE]
LED's are one of the most efficient lamps so far invented.
I don't know what to think.
It's microsofts future 'screens on everything you own' beginning.
I thought OLEDs were still the new LEDs. So what does that make these things?
Where can we buy some of this stuff?
this sounds like an amazing discovery!
More stable that the OLED's - That's a big plus considering the major turnoff for OLED's was one of the colours burning out incredibly quickly compared to the others.
So when will it be the best time to actually buy an LED TV without a newer version being released/announced a week later. I was planning on buying on OLED tv, but now there is an ILED. ffs.
[QUOTE=smurfy;16860032]I thought OLEDs were still the new LEDs. So what does that make these things?[/QUOTE]
The new old LEDs.
Is it made by Apple?
No.
[editline]07:50PM[/editline]
It's not a product it's a new technology.
[QUOTE=ManningQB18;16859870]I don't know what to think.
It's microsofts future 'screens on everything you own' beginning.[/QUOTE]
Then they'll be given touchscreens and the FUTURE WILL BE HERE.
brb saving up for rocket boots
[QUOTE=Snuffy;16861358]Then they'll be given touchscreens and the FUTURE WILL BE HERE.[/QUOTE]
wat happens if you bend tha screen an touch it with itself
[editline]07:27PM[/editline]
it has become self aware
[QUOTE=Uberslug;16861682]wat happens if you bend tha screen an touch it with itself
[editline]07:27PM[/editline]
it has become self aware[/QUOTE]
Oh shit
They have actually been making these for quite a long time now.
Don't put these in Boston.
I don't give a fuck I just want a fold up TV.
[QUOTE=DJ Biscuit;16860192]So when will it be the best time to actually buy an LED TV without a newer version being released/announced a week later. I was planning on buying on OLED tv, but now there is an ILED. ffs.[/QUOTE]
Just get an LCD or Plasma. If you keep putting off buying new technology because something new might be around the corner, you'll never buy anything.
[QUOTE=Zeke129;16863751]Just get an LCD or Plasma. If you keep putting off buying new technology because something new might be around the corner, you'll never buy anything.[/QUOTE]
You end up saving money.
out with the [B]ol[/B]e[B]d[/B], in with the new
[QUOTE=Phanny;16864823]out with the [B]ol[/B]e[B]d[/B], in with the new[/QUOTE]
[img]http://www.problogger.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/mojo.jpg[/img]
[QUOTE=smurfy;16860032]I thought OLEDs were still the new LEDs. So what does that make these things?[/QUOTE]
OLEDs were supposed to be the new LCDs.
Name sounds like an Apple product.
[QUOTE=Wig Wam;16860153]More stable that the OLED's - That's a big plus considering the major turnoff for OLED's was one of the colours burning out incredibly quickly compared to the others.[/QUOTE]
3-5 years at the LEAST is hardly "increadibly quick" considering most LCD devices these days last only a fraction longer.
OLED's are incredibly power-efficent, do not require a backlit screen (which means they have true blacks and much more vibrant colors), etc.
The only real difference from these and organics from the sound of it (other than the fact that they do not exsist yet while OLED's do), is that they theoretically have a longer lifetime and are more "moisture resistant".
hey let's find a replacement for technology that's not anywhere close to being mainstream
[QUOTE=The Epidemic;16867587]Name sounds like an Apple product.[/QUOTE]
It reminds me of ied's
[quote]...by bathing them in a strong acid.[/quote]
I read that as:
[quote]...by [b]bashing[/b] them in a strong acid.[/quote]
The resulting mental image was of a bunch of scientists in white lab coats standing around a huge vat of acid with a large, flexible sheet dipped in it and they were repeatedly hitting it with paddles and one of them was occasionally taking a curious look at their progress and writing stuff down on a clipboard.
[QUOTE=Cheesemonkey;16871554]hey let's find a replacement for technology that's not anywhere close to being mainstream[/QUOTE]
If anything that's a plus, it's really hard to replace something that's ingrained into society, this means the technology will get off the ground quicker. Besides if you can have something better, why not go with it, even if the last thing you had hasn't been around for long.
[IMG]http://filesmelt.com/downloader/smallflexi.jpg[/IMG]
flexi's anyone?
shuttup, it was a good show :(
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