Broken screens are still the bane of our devices' existence, which makes the many promises of flexible screens all the more tantalizing—even if they haven't shown up yet. Here's one more to add the pile, with a twist: UCLA researchers have developed a rudimentary OLED that's not only flexible, but can be stretched.As you can see in the video above, the team's elastomeric polymer light-emitting device (EPLED) isn't quite ready to play YouTube. Initially, the EPLED only displayed a single block of light. But that was enough to demonstrate new methods for building electrodes with elastic connections, which could power a multitude of stretchable, flexible screens in the future."Our new material is the building block for fully stretchable electronics for consumer devices," UCLA materials science professor Qibing Pei, a co-author of the paper published in Nature Photonics, said in a release. "Along with the development of stretchable thin-film transistors, we believe that fully stretchable interactive OLED displays that are as thin as wallpaper will be achieved in the near future. And this will give creative electronics designers new dimensions to exploit."Think of your computer's power cord: It can bend and still deliver power, but the wires inside it can't stretch and rebound, an issue multiplied when you're thinking about a screen matrix. The new research offers a solution: the screen is powered by "a pair of transparent composite electrodes comprising a thin percolation network of silver nanowires inlaid in the surface layer." The UCLA team was able to stretch the screen to 120 percent of its size 1,000 times without it breaking.The aforementioned pair of elastic composite electrodes are wrapped around an electroluminscent polymer layer that's the source of light emission. The secret sauce is in the electrodes themselves: because they're powered by the aforementioned nanowire network, they're far more flexible than a single wire. The transparent polymer that the EPLED is shrouded in is cool, too. Aside from being stretchy, it actually emits more light as it's stretched.Of course, as cool as the screen is, it's not exactly ready for consumer use yet. According to the paper, the team was able to develop a 5x5 pixel monochrome display, which is a good sign. But getting everything miniaturized enough to rival the high-density displays we use today, as well as building them robust enough to last in a non-lab environment, will take more work."While we perceive a bright future where information and lighting are provided in various thin, stretchable or conformable form factors, or are invisible when not needed, there are still major technical challenges," Pei said. "This includes how to seal these materials that are otherwise sensitive to air. Researchers around the world are racing the clock tackling the obstacles. We are confident that we will get there and introduce a number of cool products along the way."@derektmead
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