Published 22 April 2024 at 13.42
Domestic. Chinese researchers at Linköping University have developed a digital screen where the LEDs themselves react to, among other things, touch, light, fingerprints and the user's pulse. The results, published in Nature Electronics, could be the start of a whole new generation of screens for phones, computers and tablets.
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– Now we have shown that it can be done. There is great potential for a new generation of digital screens where new advanced functions can be created. From now on, it's about improving the technology into a commercially viable product, says Feng Gao, professor of optoelectronics at Linköping University (LiU).
Digital screens have become a mainstay in almost all personal electronics. However, the most modern LCD and OLED screens on the market can only display information. In order for them to become a multi-function screen that detects touch, fingerprints or changing light conditions, a variety of sensors are required that are layered on top of, or around the screen.
Researchers at Linköping University have now developed a completely new type of screen where all sensor functions are in the screen LEDs.
The LEDs are made of a crystalline material called perovskite. The material has a strong ability to both emit and absorb light and it is precisely this ability that is the key to the newly developed screen.
In addition to the screen reacting to touch, light, fingerprints and the user's pulse, among other things, the device can also charged through the screen thanks to the perovskites' ability to also act as solar cells.
– An example – the screen of your smartwatch is turned off most of the time. During the screen's off time, it could instead absorb light to charge the watch, significantly extending the time between charges, said Chunxiong Bao, assistant professor at Nanjing University and former postdoc at LiU.
For a screen to to be able to display all colors there needs to be three colors on the LEDs – red, green and blue – which shine differently and thus give rise to thousands of different colours. The researchers at Linköping University have developed screens with perovskite LEDs in all three colors, which paves the way for a screen that can display all colors within the visible light spectrum.
But there are still many difficulties to be solved before the screen is everywhere man's pocket. However, Zhongcheng Yuan, also a former postdoc at LiU and now a researcher at the University of Oxford, believes that many of the problems will be solved within ten years.
– Among other things, the lifespan of the perovskite LEDs needs to be improved. Currently, the screen works for a few hours before the material becomes too unstable and the LEDs go out, he says.