LG talks curved display technology, touts 7.2 gram 6-inch panel

The topic of curved displays seems rather hot lately with chatter coming from both LG and Samsung. And it looks like LG has offered an announcement on the topic this morning. It seems LG has begun mass-producing what they are referring to as the “world’s first flexible OLED panel.” This one is designed specially for smartphones.

There wasn’t much in terms of when we can expect to see this show up on devices for purchase. At this point the when seems to be more of a general timeframe pointing at next year. In fact, statements from Dr. Sang Deog Yeo, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of LG Display touched on how they believe the “flexible display market is expected to grow quickly.”

To that point, he also mentioned how “LG Display is launching a new era of flexible displays for smartphones with its industry-leading technology” and how they are hoping to “take an early lead in the flexible display market by introducing new products with enhanced performance and differentiated designs next year.”

Aside from the talk about when, there was also a bit of discussion about the technology itself. Details coming from a recently issued press release note how these panels are built on plastic substrates instead of glass. Further details here talk about how these panels are made bendable by applying a “film-type encapsulation technology and attaching the protection film to the back of the panel.”

Other details on the panel itself point towards it being concave from top to bottom and with a radius of 700mm. The panel is 0.44mm thick and is described as being the “world’s slimmest among existing mobile device panels.” And similar to the thickness, the panel is also the lightest at 7.2 grams. The interesting part here, LG notes how this weight is for a 6-inch display. Bottom line here, it is looking like we can expect a 6-inch device with curved display coming from LG.