LG Display to Lead Development of S. Korean Government-Backed Stretchable Display Project

South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy chose LG Display to lead its project to develop stretchable displays, said LG Thursday. The company hopes to develop stretchable display products with a 20% elongation rate by 2024, it said. Stretchable displays will play a huge role in the era of IoT, 5G and self-driving cars, said Soo-Young Yoon, head of LG Display Lab. Stretchable displays can shift in “free form,” similar to the way a rubber band stretches, while not affecting the quality of displays, said Yoon. Existing commercial flexible display technologies -- bendable, foldable, and rollable -- are suited to particular areas, said LG, but stretchable displays have a variety of applications including “multi-foldable" smart devices, wearables, and auto and aviation displays that overcome design constraints caused by curved surfaces, said the company. LG Display will oversee 21 entities, including related companies, research institutes and universities; it will also develop core technologies, obtain patents and create markets for stretchable displays, it said.