LG Display has unveiled what it is calling “the world’s first stretchable display,” a screen capable of elongated up to 50 percent, “the highest rate in the industry.” At LG Sciencepark in Seoul this month, the company demonstrated the new panel at a meeting of more than 100 South Korean industry, academia and research stakeholders involved in a stretchable display national project. The free-form prototype has a 12-inch screen that can be folded and twisted and stretched up to 18 inches while continuing to deliver resolution of 100ppi and full RGB color by using a silicon substrate and special wiring structure.

The protean screen tech offers “a limitless number of applications — from clothing and wearable technologies to extruded touchable automotive panels. LG even showed a concept where the stretchable display is sewn or attached directly to firefighter uniforms and displays real-time information to the rest of their team,” reports Tom’s Hardware.

LG’s experimental display was developed by applying emerging technologies in new ways, “such as improving the properties of a special silicon material substrate used in contact lenses and developing a new wiring design structure,” LG Display explains in an announcement.

“By using a microLED light source of up to 40μm (micrometers), the new prototype’s strengthened durability means it can be repeatedly stretched over 10,000 times, maintaining clear image quality even in extreme environments such as exposure to low or high temperatures and external shocks,” LG adds.

The stretchable display national project is a program spearheaded by the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) and the Korea Planning & Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology, explains Tom’s, noting that “aside from LG Display, which took the lead, the current stretchable display prototype involves over 19 domestic industry and research institutions.”

Tech Times calls the technology “impressive” and “more than just a game changer,” suggesting that “this achievement not only represents a great advance in material science and engineering but also expands possibilities that can be applied to industries requiring flexible, durable and adaptable screens.”

The tech could possibly be used in smartphones and automotive interfaces. The company showcased application concepts including an automotive panel that stretches out into a convex shape and can be operated by hand.

By successfully completing the project, LG Display has “secured core technologies that can lead the next-generation display market” and also created a useful R&D infrastructure, according to LG Display CTO and EVP Soo-young Yoon.