Flexible screens mainly include four technologies: OLED, MicroLED, e-paper, and LCD. OLED is currently the most mature and widely used flexible display solution.
OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) is the mainstream technology for flexible screens. It uses self-emissive pixels, eliminating the need for a backlight module. The substrate can be made of flexible materials such as plastic, allowing for bending, folding, and even rolling. Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold series and Huawei's Mate X series foldable phones both use flexible OLED screens with curvature radii down to the 1mm level and a folding lifespan exceeding 200,000 cycles.
MicroLED, as an emerging technology, transfers micron-sized LED chips onto a flexible substrate, combining the flexibility of OLED with the high brightness and long lifespan of traditional LEDs. Samsung has showcased several MicroLED flexible concept products, but current mass production costs are high, primarily limiting its application to high-end commercial fields.
Electronic paper (E-paper) uses electrophoretic display technology, offering a paper-like visual experience and extremely low power consumption. E Ink's flexible electronic paper can be bent 180 degrees, with its latest color electronic paper only 0.3 mm thick, already used in foldable e-books and flexible electronic tags.
Flexible LCD screens achieve limited bending through improvements to the liquid crystal layer and backlight system, with bending radii typically larger than OLEDs. Japan Display Inc.'s (JDI) eTFT series of flexible LCDs can be as thin as 0.5 mm, primarily used in applications with lower flexibility requirements, such as automotive dashboards.
These technologies are continuously evolving. In 2023, BOE released an OLED screen with a folding radius of 3 mm, while Visionox developed a 360-degree bi-directional foldable AMOLED panel. Flexible screens will continue to develop towards holographic displays, stretchable displays, and other directions, driving innovative applications in wearable devices and flexible electronic products.