Professor pioneers world's first foldable electronic display

A local academic has produced the world's first foldable electronic display - a paper-thin device about one-sixth the thickness of a credit card.

It could prove revolutionary because it uses less power and is cheaper to produce than LCD technology.

The 'Paper-like Thermochromic Electronic Display' was developed by Wen Weijia, a professor of physics, and his team at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

The device, which can be bent or wrapped around a column or folded like paper, is made by embedding conductive wiring patterns into thermochromic composite films.

The images that are produced are clear and the colour display can be tuned, reversed or repeated by varying the temperature.

'The thickness of our device is only 150 microns. The advantages are it uses relatively less power and has a lower manufacturing cost,' Professor Wen said. 'The use of liquid crystal display [LCD] technology can become very expensive as the size of the display increases.'

He said the new device cuts manufacturing cost to a tenth of that of conventional LCD technology. An electronic display the size of the one in Times Square could be made for HK$5,000 or less.