UCLA engineers develop flexible, transparent electronic display

Researchers at UCLA’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science recently developed an elastic, flexible and transparent lighting panel out of organic materials.

Organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs, run electricity through carbon-based, solid-state polymers to emit light. The process offers advantages over traditional incandescent and fluorescent lighting. OLEDs prove more energy efficient and longer lasting than their predecessors, as the new technology uses exclusively solid-state components. The panels developed by UCLA researchers are also completely transparent when inactive, and can be stretched or bent while still maintaining their original shape.

UCLA researchers developed the material to pave the way for a new generation of thin, fully flexible consumer electronics, including pliable smartphones.

Compiled by Stephen Arnold, Bruin contributor.