LG’s flexible plastic e-paper display to launch

LG has today made an announcement of a six-inch display that promises to “revolutionize the e-book market.” With a native resolution of 1024 x 768 px the display can be bent and squished at an angle of up to 40 degrees. The display is only 0.7 millimeters thick and weight only 14 gms.

LG Display Begins Mass Production of World’s First Plastic E-Paper Display

With advancements in functionality and design, Plastic EPD to revolutionize E-Book market

Seoul, Korea  – LG Display , a leading manufacturer of thin-film transistor liquid crystal display, announced today that it has started mass production of the world’s first plastic electronic paper display (EPD) for use in E-Books. The 6″ XGA (1024×768), e-ink, plastic EPD is expected to revolutionize the E-Book market with its advancements in functionality and design.

“With the world’s first plastic EPD, LG Display has once again proven its reputation for leadership and innovation with a product we believe will help greatly popularize the E-Book market,” said Mr. Sang Duck Yeo, Head of Operations for LG Display’s Mobile/OLED division. “Based on our success in mass-producing plastic EPD, we are excited as we look toward applying concepts from this experience to future developments like plastic OLED and flexible displays.”

Innovations in Functionality and Design
The world’s first plastic EPD from LG Display offers users a paper-like reading experience with a plastic substrate that is as slim as cell phone protection film, and a flexible design that allows bending at a range of 40 degrees from the center of the screen. Compared to glass EPD of the same size and resolution, LG Display’s plastic EPD realizes a super slim thickness of 0.7mm which is 1/3 slimmer than existing glass EPD; as well as a weight of 14g which is more than 1/2 lighter.

E-Book users have long expressed a desire for more durable EPD, since around 10% of them have damaged their product screens from accidentally dropping or hitting them. When LG Display’s plastic EPD was put through repeated drop tests, from 1.5m above the ground or the average height of reading when standing, no damage resulted. When put through a break/scratch test involving hitting the display with a small urethane hammer, no scratches or breakage resulted.

As EPD gets thinner, lighter, and more durable with the introduction of plastic EPD, E-Books will be able to offer certain unique benefits compared to smart devices and tablets, including reduced eye fatigue and more efficient electricity consumption in addition to lower prices.

A Manufacturing Breakthrough
LG Display developed a unique technique to utilize the high TFT process, typically employed in general LCD manufacturing and with temperatures exceeding 350 degrees, in the production of its plastic EPD. By overcoming the obstacles associated with applying the existing production process to heat susceptible plastic, LG Display achieved a breakthrough with the successful mass production of plastic EPD able to maintain strong durability in high temperatures.

Availability
The world’s first mass-produced plastic EPD from LG Display will first be supplied to ODM companies in China, followed by completed products to be released in Europe at the beginning of next month.

LG unveils 4G phone

 LG Electronics Inc, the world's No.3 handset maker, launched a new smartphone that runs on South Korea's fast, fourth-generation network, in the company's latest attempt to rescue its loss-making handset business.

The Optimus LTE will square off against Samsung Electronics Co's 4G version of its flagship Galaxy S model and Apple's new iPhone, which runs on standard 3G network, during the key year-end holiday season.

The high-end model comes after LG suffered five consecutive quarterly losses from handset sales and is set to report a wider loss for the September quarter later this month due to a lack of attractive high-end models.

LG has been slower than its bigger rivals to refocus on smartphones, and its smaller scale has held it back from profiting from rising demand for cheaper phones.

The firm now hopes its early move to the 4G segment can help revive its fortunes. "Optimus LTE is our ambitious product that mobilizes our LTE and display technologies," Na Young-bae, senior vice president and head of LG's domestic marketing, told reporters.

The model, with a 4.5-inch high-definition screen, has an 8-megapixel rear camera and 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera. It is powered by Qualcomm Inc's 1.5 GHz dual core processing chip and Google's gingerbread version of the Android operating system.

Its hardware offering is similar to Samsung's Galaxy S II LTE. LG said it has yet to decide when the product will go on sale in overseas markets.

It has some 1,400 LTE patents, which some analysts estimate are worth $8 billion. LG is expected to report that loss margins from handset sales worsened in the third quarter to around 3 per cent from 1.7 per cent loss margin in the second quarter, due to reduced volume shipments after it trimmed feature phone lineups to focus on smartphones.

In July, the company cut this year's smartphone sales target by 20 percent to 24 million units and gave no outlook for when the business may become profitable.

Many analysts have forecast the business to turn profitable next year, but confidence levels have waned after the consecutive string of quarterly losses.