Computers that even soldiers can't break.

AuthorJean, Grace V.
PositionINSIDE SCIENCE + TECHNOLOGY

BlackBerries, iPhones and laptops, move over. In a few years, soldiers could pull from their pockets paper-thin mini computers that they can unfold or unroll to display maps, streaming video and the latest mission briefings. The display screens someday could be sewn into their uniform sleeves.

That is the Army's goal in funding the Flexible Display Center at Arizona State University. It is investing $50 million to continue research and development efforts there to speed the concept onto the battlefleld.

"Our vision is to create a new class of displays that we believe will benefit the individual soldier," says the Army's chief scientist, Thomas Killion.

Today's widespread flatscreen technology is the LCD, or liquid crystal display. But because it is built on a glass plate, which makes devices heavy and power hungry, such displays are not ideal for the Army's portable needs, says the flexible display center's director, Nicholas Colaneri. Soldiers want lightweight, low power and durable displays. But the commercial market has not delivered products that meet the military's demands. Dominated by companies in Asia, the display industry remains focused on the consumer electronics arena and has lacked incentives to enter the defense market.

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With its force becoming ever reliant on networked technologies, the Army has decided to take matters into its own hands. By sponsoring the development of the center as a consortium of industry, government, academia and military partners, advance-ments in materials, manufacturing processes and engineering have taken place to allow flexible display technologies to become reality, says Colaneri.

"This is a chance for American industry to step up," says Killion. So far, the center's scientists, housed in a manufacturing facility formerly owned by Motorola, have produced 4-inch flexible displays that fit in the palm. They have a resolution of 240 by 320 pixels in black, white and gray scale. Researchers expect to do the same in color very soon, says Colaneri.

Through a process called "bond-debond," thin pliable materials such as specialty polyester or stainless steel are glued to rigid carriers and then are sent through conventional semiconductor processing equipment. Once the microelectronics are put on the flexible substrate, the display is simply peeled off, of debonded.

"We have created the most viable architecture for taking that technology to mass manufacturing in a flexible format,"...

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