$1.7 Billion Flexible Display and Sensor Manufacturing Facility Nears Completion

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Royole Corporation announced the expected completion of a US$1.7 billion facility dedicated to the mass production of flexible displays and sensors. While the privately held company has only been around since 2012, the 2014 debut of a 0.01mm-thick, full-color active matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) flexible display, which it claims is the thinnest of its kind, and a clear push to etch its place among a select group of players with a shot at seriously shaking up the supplier landscape, put it ahead of more mainstream market developments.

The annual output capacity of Royole’s new Shenzhen production facility is estimated to be in excess of 50 million flexible displays per annum.

ABI Research forecasts that smart glasses shipments alone will climb from several hundred thousand units in 2017 to more than 33 million by 2022, globally (at a segment-leading 129% CAGR). Virtual reality (VR) is projected to grow from about 20 million to more than 152 million over the same period. But flexible displays and sensors have broader applicability than just the augmented reality (AR)/merged reality (MR) and VR markets; they can be used in smart clothing to facilitate more aesthetically pleasing wearable device design (e.g., watches, rings, jewelry), smaller form factors (e.g., hearables, healthcare devices), and more immersive experiences.

The same underlying technology could also be applied to a range of Internet of Things (IoT) applications, enabling the use of curved and/or flexible touch panels in the in automotive, smart home, industrial, and commercial end markets.

In a car, this could take the form of a fully-integrated center stack portrayed on a single pane of glass. In the home, it could be an interactive lamp, countertop, or mirror. In industrial and commercial environments, these technologies can be used to not only serve as a human machine interface (HMI) but also to improve worker safety through more contextually-oriented alerts and notifications (e.g., indicating when a machine is hot, a wire is live, or air quality is permissible). A flexible touch sensor, meanwhile, would allow the input surface to take a variety of forms beyond that of a flat, planar surface.

The ability to manufacture flexible displays also means the ability to manufacture curved displays, and both modalities accommodate a more flexible hardware design process.

In mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, the benefits of greater access to curved and/or flexible display manufacturing are fairly straightforward. For more forward-looking technologies, such as AR and MR, these are the kinds of developments that help new solutions reach the masses. Although more affordable component materials and therefore lower bill of material (BOM) costs may be a natural byproduct of the unit economics. Royole is likely after the kind of design flexibility that comes with the ability to fit displays and sensors to the application rather than the other way around. This represents a big step forward for brands (e.g., Luxottica) that want to leverage connected technologies without compromising their more traditional identity, as well as industrial suppliers that want to enable safer, seamless interactions with their equipment.

While the future for Royole itself has yet to be seen, the startup’s thrust into a corner of the mobile arena ripe with innovation (in tangential industries such as AR/MR, automotive, and smart home) represents the broader trend to enable more “magical” experiences by allowing technology to fade into the background. This is one of several areas where we see the potential for more precise and personal connected device interactions, regardless of whether they are in your pocket, on your body, at home, or on the job.