Previous works on MEMS actuated Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) highlighted promising results for flexible display applications. Three primary color pixels have indeed been obtained using both photolithography and Roll-to-Roll printing process with satisfying color purity and transmittance. A new process based on inkjet printing has been set up to contribute in a more ecological-friendly, high reproducible and fast process development while targeting improved features.
Recent market trend reports escalating interests of customers for portable devices and most particularly in display and entertainment field. In this context, new flexible devices (Figure 1) intend to replace traditional publication media, such as papers and books, by using flexible polymer substrate gathering light weight, low consumption and high integration.
Under electrostatic Coulomb force, the upper layer will be attracted down to contact the isolation layer (SiO2) and satisfy Fabry–Perot interference condition. The output light is then changed from input backlight (white light) to different colors according to different SiO2 thickness.
For fast processing and environmental point of view, inkjet printing is chosen to be the next step in fast research and versatile potentialities.
Thanks to high transmittance, bendability and vivid colors (Figure 5), Roll-to-Roll FPI device could be easily used in the display field and more particularly for decoration or flexible panel.