Flexible LED Display Screen - - Developed by John Rogers at the University of Illinois

New developments in light-emitting diode (LED) technology may now allow display screens to be so flexible that they can be fit around the contours of a bus, yet be transparent enough to let bus riders see outside at the same time.

The technology for the flexible LED displays was developed by John Rogers of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Rogers claims that the new technology combines the use of LED technology (commonly used on roadside billboards) with the flexibility of organic screens (displays containing carbon).

The thing about inorganic LED displays is that LED lights have to be arranged by robotic arm individually on the display surface. Organic LED displays, on the other hand, can be sprayed or painted onto the film surface, but don’t look quite as good as inorganic LED displays.

The new technology combines aspects of the two LED technologies to create flexible LED display screens. Ford Motors Co., the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Energy funded the development of flexible LED displays, which can ultimately be used to create brake lights that fit the contour of a car or a health monitoring or imaging devices that can fit around a patient like a blanket.