Flexible Guided Light Array Scanning Textile-Mounted Display

To address the U.S. Army need for ultrathin, flexible, high-resolution electronic color displays on soldiers’ uniforms and on interior and exterior shelter fabrics, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) is developing a new Polymer Guided Light Array Scanning (POLYGLAS) display that is low-cost, low-power, compact, full-color, rugged, and sunlight readable. The POLYGLAS display is based on three technologies: a miniature microelectromechanical light scanner and light emitting diode (LED) source; highly flexible polymer waveguide array laminates; and a novel liquid crystal switching fabric. In Phase I POC proved the feasibility of the POLYGLAS concept by theoretical and experimental demonstrations. The direct modulation of light and use of a flexible polymer waveguide display has unique advantages over current flexible displays in terms of size, power, resolution, color, grayscale, dynamic range, and refresh rate. The Phase I prototype has an active area of 2 in. square, with up to 10,000 100-micron pixels. In Phase II POC will optimize the design and fabricate POLYGLAS display prototypes in two configurations--one 3 in. square for individual use (on soldiers’ uniforms) and the other 12 in. square (scalable to 24 in. square or larger) for attachment to shelter fabric.