Mobile devices such as the successful Apple iPhone rely on advanced optoelectronics to provide an improved web browsing and video experience. For example, compared to most smart phones that employ a 2.2 – 2.6 inch QVGA (320 x 240 pixels) display, the iPhone with a 3.5 inch higher resolution ½ VGA (480 x 320 pixels) display makes near maximum usage of it’s front surface real estate though the use of touch screen input and a single button. This design enables a high information content display in a somewhat larger but still compact form factor. The illustration below compares the iPhone with the generic size portable information device (100 mm x 50 mm x 20 mm). The iPhone measures 115 mm x 61 mm x 11.6 mm. The generic size portable device is also shown compared to a deck of playing cards. Note that the generic personal information device (PID) size is very close in size to playing cards, credit cards, and other small items meant to be hand held and carried by humans.
The thinness of the iPhone, while a technical challenge for the display with touch screen and the additional components and packaging, allows for the slightly wider device and makes a strong styling statement.
Advancing optoelectronics technology is giving mobile device designers entirely new ways to incorporate high information content displays in very small form factors. Direct view displays in mobile handsets are always constrained by the surface area of the device. Stowable displays based on new flexible display technology offer one path to overcome this limitation. The figure below shows a flexible display panel using electrophoretic technology developed by Polymer Vision.
Flexible display technologies like that illustrated above give product designers new opportunities. The figure below shows a wireless device, the Readius phone/e-book reader, developed by Polymer Vision, that employs a flexible electrophoretic display in a stowable form factor. When not in use, the 5.0 inch display rolls up into the body of the portable device which with a size of (100 x 56 x 21 mm) is nearly the size of the generic portable information device (100 x 50 x 20 mm) that more typically sports a 2.5 inch diagonal display. When the user wishes to view the display, she unrolls the display to yield a screen area larger than the portable device form factor when stowed. Flexible and conformal displays will provide future product designers with some very interesting options.
