Yang Ji-woong, a professor in the Department of Energy Engineering at the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), announced on the 25th that his research team has developed a next-generation display core material with excellent elasticity and color reproduction.
Quantum dots are materials sized at ㎚ (nanometers; one billionth of a meter) that can express vivid colors and have recently been widely used in high-definition displays. However, when mixed with polymers for application in flexible displays, issues like particle clumping or color leakage have limited actual commercialization.
The research team solved these issues by directly connecting quantum dots with elastic polymers that stretch like rubber. The color conversion layer produced using this technology achieved a high resolution of 313 PPI (pixels per inch of display) while maintaining a color conversion rate of over 99% even when stretched up to 50%. This represents the world's highest level among related technologies reported to date.
The research team also integrated this color conversion layer with micro light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to create a fully operational full-color stretchable display and applied it to robotic skin and wearable healthcare monitoring sensors, proving the practicality of the technology.
Professor Yang Ji-woong said, "This research overcomes the limitations of existing quantum dot-based color conversion technology, achieving a world-first result that satisfies both flexibility and resolution," and noted, "There is significant potential for expansion into various fields such as wearable electronic devices, robotic skin, smart healthcare, and human-machine interfaces."
This research was conducted in collaboration with Professors Choi Moon-ki and Park Jong-nam from the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) and Professor Kim Dae-hyung from Seoul National University. The research results were published on the 14th in the international academic journal 'Advanced Materials' and were selected as the cover paper (inside back cover).
References
Advanced Materials (2025), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202420633