LG Chem Enters 'Foldable' Display Material Business

Development of Foldable Display 'Real Folding Window'
Foldable Phone Market Expected to Grow from 3.5 Million Units in 2020 to 50 Million Units by 2026

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] LG Chem has developed a new technology capable of implementing foldable displays and is set to make a full-scale entry into the next-generation display materials market.

LG Chem announced on the 7th that it has developed the 'Real Folding Window,' a cover window for foldable IT devices.

The cover window is a core material located on the outermost part of IT devices, protecting the display panel from impact while delivering clear images. It is characterized by the need to have durability, transmittance, and flexible bending properties all at once.

As demand for foldable displays in the IT market, including smartphones and TVs, rapidly increases, the market is also expanding. According to global market research firm Omdia, the foldable phone market is expected to grow sharply from 3.5 million units in 2020 to 50 million units in 2026.

The 'Real Folding Window' developed by LG Chem this time supplements the heat resistance and mechanical properties of plastic materials by coating both sides of a PET film, a type of thin plastic, with a new material at a thickness of several tens of micrometers (㎛). Compared to conventional tempered glass, it is thinner, has the same level of hardness, and does not exhibit cracking that breaks the screen. It is more cost-competitive than existing polyimide films and maintains durability even after being folded more than 200,000 times due to its excellent flexibility.

LG Chem has significantly improved wrinkles occurring at the folding part of the screen compared to existing products. In particular, while currently commercialized cover windows are optimized for the in-folding method where the screen folds inward, the 'Real Folding Window' has the advantage of being capable of implementing both the out-folding method, where the screen folds outward, and the in-folding method.

LG Chem is also developing technology to produce a thin form of the 'Real Folding Window' by coating alone without a separate PET film. Products using the coating method without PET film are expected to be applied to foldable phones and rollable IT devices that require thin thickness.

LG Chem has identified customer needs for cover window materials such as thin thickness, clean appearance, and stable folding characteristics, completed the development and verification of coating-type cover window technology, secured mass production capability by 2022, and plans to start full-scale product sales from 2023.

Jang Do-gi, head of LG Chem's IT Materials Division, said, "We have already received joint project proposals from several customers through the Real Folding Window," adding, "We will strengthen partnerships with leading companies in the smartphone sector and expand the market to new foldable application fields such as laptops and tablets, starting with mobile."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.