Scientists from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, as they say, presented the first in full 3D printing Flexible OLED display. This gives hope that in the future we will not have to rely on panels manufactured in Chinese factories when building or repairing devices with such screens.
The new method combines two 3D printing methods to print the six layers needed for a functional display. The team benefited from extrusion printing For electrodes, packaging, insulation and connections, while the active layers are sprayed at room temperature (on the same printer).
Previous attempts by different research teams had problems with LED uniformity (lack of consistency across the entire board), or relying on techniques beyond 3D printing such as spin coating or thermal evaporation to hold some of the items in place which has been discarded here.
However, the prototype was only 1.5 inches wide and It only uses 64 pixels, and any practical application requires a much higher resolution (1080p screen requires more than 2 million pixels) and better brightness, so it may take some time to adapt the technology for home use.
Especially since the university used a dedicated 3D printer that costs up to … Tesla Model S! So it will likely be a long time before the method becomes available to the average user and their home printer, even for high-end models that cost several thousand dollars.
However, the nature of this technology makes the goal relatively realistic and opens the door to many possibilities. Doing the repair yourself is just one of them because it can also help with the construction beer tools with dedicated screens, reducing our reliance on pre-assembled components from large companies. So there is nothing else to do but be patient and wait for this technology to be commercialized.
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