You may not need to ship your devices (or buy spare parts) if the screen breaks, you can create new screens yourself. Researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities have developed what they say is the first fully 3D printed flexible OLED display. In theory, you wouldn’t have to rely on panels made in large, remote factories to build or repair your devices.
The new approach combines two 3D printing methods to print the six layers necessary for a functional display. The team used extrusion printing to fabricate the electrodes, encapsulation, insulation, and interconnects, while the active layers were spray painted at room temperature. Previous attempts by various teams had issues with light uniformity (consistency across the entire panel) or relied on techniques other than 3D printing to place certain components, such as spin coating or l thermal evaporation.
The prototype was only 1.5 inches wide and only used 64 pixels. Any practical use would require much higher resolutions (a 1080p display requires over 2 million pixels), and scientists are also keen to improve brightness. Adapting the technology for home use can also take time. The university used a custom 3D printer that cost as much as a Tesla Model S – it may take some time for the method to be viable on commercially available printers, even on high end models such as $ 4,850 3 billion FormLabs +.
However, the very nature of the technology makes these goals relatively achievable and opens the door to a lot of possibilities as long as home printed OLED displays are practical. In addition to DIY repairs, it could help you build homemade devices with custom screens. While this effort doesn’t fully represent the democratization of technological manufacturing (there are way more parts than screens, after all), it could reduce your reliance on pre-assembled corporate components.
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