Japan Display Inc today announced the development of FULL ACTIVE FLEX, which uses a plastic substrate for both sides of the liquid crystal layer, and its introduction into a 5.5-inch Full-HD LCD display for smartphone devices.

With FULL ACTIVE FLEX it is easily possible to form curved shapes by utilizing its flexibility, and thus it will greatly help to expand the degrees of freedom in smartphone design. Also, by using plastic substrates instead of glass, it is possible to prevent cracking from occurring when the display is dropped.

Furthermore, by incorporating low-frequency driving technology, which JDI has developed in the past, this FULL ACTIVE FLEX supports not only a normal 60Hz driving scheme but also supports a driving scheme as low as 15Hz. This contributes to a significant decrease of power consumption for mobile devices.

JDI is planning to start mass production of this display in 2018.

JDI will position this technology as one of its new platform technologies, and will consider adopting it not only in smartphone displays but also in notebook PCs, automotive applications and other various products as well.