Motorola could unveil a borderless flexible OLED smartphone, hints patent

Motorola is likely to jump on to the bandwagon of OLED smartphones.

| Published: Monday, February 12, 2018, 15:21 [IST]

With the bezel-less smartphones getting into the mainstream it looks like Motorola has filed patents for a borderless flexible OLED display pointing out its interest in foraying into this segment of the market. The recent patent application shows that the company is all set to come up with innovations in the smartphone display front in the future.

Motorola could unveil a borderless flexible OLED smartphone

The company has filed patents in WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) and were published on February 8, 2018. The sketches of these patents revealed via LetsGoDigital shows that the patent application was filed back in August 2016 with the title 'Display device with heterogeneous pixel array for borderless design'.

More smartphone manufacturers are all set to use OLED displays on their high-end smartphones. Companies like Samsung and Google have been following this trend for years. Recently, Apple and LG also joined the list with the launch of the iPhone X and LG V30 smartphones.

Benefits of OLED

The patent explains a slew of benefits of using OLED displays. For instance, it shows that the OLED displays are self-emitting, offer a wider viewing angle, use less energy, and render fast response times. Then the type of the OLED panel has also been detailed - passive and active matrix OLED displays.

Active Matrix OLED displays are expensive

In the active matrix OLED displays, all the pixels can be operated individually. This is possible as each pixel will have circuit components with many thin film transistors and one or more storage capacitors to make the pixels stay on longer. These circuit components are usually placed at the edges of the screen called ‘dead pixel area'.

Motorola's new OLED display will have no dead pixels so that the company has develop smartphones that have a borderless design. Motorola has patented a technology that will use a heterogeneous pixel structure instead of the current uniform pixels.

Foldable smartphone from Motorola

This new OLED panel development is not restricted to the flat panel displays. This technology is also meant for the smartphones with flexible or foldable displays. We can expect to see a flexible device in the form of a tablet and a foldable smartphone design from the company. The implementation of flex sensors will determine the degree of bending.

Announcement might take time

Lately, Lenovo showed a glimpse of a wearable smartphone featuring a flexible display and a tablet that can double as a smartphone when it is folded. This makes us believe that Lenovo is already working on these devices and that these might see the light of the day in the coming years. But Motorola's patent recently surfaced online and we cannot expect such a borderless OLED smartphone to be launched anytime soon.