PRESS RELEASE
Shenzhen, 26th March 2020 – Royole Corporation (“Royole”, “Company”), a pioneer and the global leader in the flexible technology industry, today unveiled its next generation Fully Flexible Display (FFD), the 3rd Generation Cicada Wing®.
The 3rd Generation Cicada Wing® FFD delivers significant improvements over the previous generation and leads the industry in flexible display performance and reliability. The new FFD offers 50% increase of brightness and delivers enhanced performance on other optical metrics at the same time, including high contrast, wide color gamut, fast response time, etc. To ensure the display fits folding and other free form-factor applications, it also provides outstanding viewing angle performance with a JNCD (Just Noticeable Color Difference) below 0.6 and 1.5-times better brightness decay at a 30O view angle. This means the display maintains accurate and vivid rendering of colors and bright images seen from any perspectives, hence even more astonishing flexible display performance over the 2nd generation Cicada Wing® and other technologies. Equipped with a new custom-designed driver integrated circuit chip, the imagery quality is further enhanced. Mechanically, the 3rd Generation Cicada Wing® FFD can reach a minimum bend radius of just 1mm while providing the smoothest folding experience in the industry even after more than 200,000 bends.
The 3rd Generation Cicada Wing® FFD enables unlimited use cases across various industries. Durable and reliable, it delivers stunning visuals thanks to Royole’s proprietary ULT-NSSP™*(Ultra Low Temperature Non-Silicon Semiconductor Process) technology and mechanical design guided by advanced Smart Mechanical Simulation methodology.
Royole’s ULT-NSSP™* technology entered into mass production in 2018 as the industry's first for Fully Flexible Display, enabling simplified production process, superior bending reliability, and high yield rates at significantly lower costs and equipment investments in comparison to the LTPS** and other manufacturing process previously adopted for conventional display products by the industry.
Royole’s comprehensive mechanical simulation platform has allowed the company to rapidly experiment, test and adjust the fundamental material properties and stacking structure to have the most advanced flexible module materials utilized in an efficient and manufacturing-friendly approach. It contributes to the excellent mechanical reliability of Royole’s FFD as a highly differentiating factor. This, in conjunction with bespoke customer driven research and development, and production, has enabled Royole to build over 500 business partnerships globally, including household names such as Louis Vuitton, Airbus, China Mobile, Li-Ning, SF Express, Toyota, PSA and Legrand.
The first Royole product to feature the 3rd Generation Cicada Wing® FFD is going to be the FlexPai® 2 foldable smartphone. Taking over from FlexPai® 1, the world's first foldable smartphone with FFD brought to the market, FlexPai® 2 offers significant improvements in every possible way. In addition to the most advanced fully flexible display of 7.8-inch in size and with a 4:3 aspect ratio, the performance and design of FlexPai® 2 have been promoted to the next level, by adopting the state-of-art computing, memory, structural material technologies. One critical piece of engineering is the proprietary brand new, premium build, wearproof, mechanically robust, Super Seamless & Stepless Hinge (3S™ Hinge***). FlexPai® 2 will be officially launched in Q2 this year to the consumer market.
ZTE Partnership
During the online event of the 2020 Royole Technology and Partnership Conference, the company announced a strategic partnership with the global technology company, ZTE Corporation. The two parties will work together to promote the rapid popularization and application of fully flexible screens in the 5G era in the smart terminal devices and other fields.
ZTE is a provider of advanced telecommunications systems, mobile devices and enterprise technology solutions to consumers, operators and companies. As a part of ZTE's strategy, the company is committed to providing customers with integrated end-to-end innovations to deliver excellence and value as the telecommunications and information technology sectors converge. ZTE ranks global top 3 with 2,561 families of 5G declared Standard-Essential Patents to ETSI. In 2018, ZTE created an entirely new foldable smartphone category with ZTE Axon M, the first foldable dual-screen smartphone. In 2019, ZTE took the lead in unveiling the first 5G smartphone ZTE Axon 10 Pro 5G, which has been available in more than 10 countries on a global scale and also recognized as the first 5G smartphone commercially available in the Nordic Countries, the Middle East and China. In the 5G era, ZTE is committed to meeting the diverse requirements of carriers, enterprise users and consumers in multiple service scenarios, and empowering hundreds of industries with a complete 5G terminal devices portfolio.
Commenting on the ZTE partnership, Royole Founder and CEO Dr. Bill Liu said: “We are very excited to partner with ZTE, a global leader in telecommunications and information technology. Royole and ZTE will collaborate for innovative applications of fully flexible display technology and we look forward to supporting ZTE to create innovative foldable smartphones that fully utilize the advantages of Royole's leading flexible solutions.”
Mr. Feng Xu, Senior Vice President of ZTE Corporation, and President of ZTE Mobile Devices, commented: “We are really enthusiastic with the new strategic partnership with Royole. Focusing on the smart communication technology and advanced video technology in the 5G era, ZTE, together with Royole will explore the innovative applications of the fully flexible display technology in mobile devices, to deliver a new user experience. ZTE Mobile Devices is devoted to being a reliable partner of people’s daily life and the society. In the future, we're expecting where there is a connection, there is a ZTE device.”
Technology Terms
Royole’s Technological Methodology
Royole’s invention of ULT-NSSP™ is the industry’s first production process that enables the mass production of fully flexible displays, since then it has unfolded the next chapter in the fully flexible display sector. By enabling high production yield, outstanding bending reliability, and excellent optical performance of FFD, it has great potential to further open the door to the next generation of display innovations and applications. ULT-NSSP™ involves the adoptions of novel material systems, ultra-low temperature processing technology, corresponding display panel driving scheme, electronic system designs and many more components, making the overall technology package distinctively different from conventional display panel manufacturing.
While Royole’s ULT-NSSP™ delivers the outstanding display performance, it utilises a simplified manufacturing process, and allows for lower equipment costs, higher yield and excellent bending reliability. In addition, the lower processing temperature allows for brand new material choices, uncomplicated process control, and more design flexibility. For system integration, Royole has developed proprietary on-panel circuitry and driver IC to enhance the performance of the FFD display.
*：ULT-NSSP™, or the Ultra-Low-Temperature Non-Silicon Semiconductor Process, is a proprietary process technology developed by Royole and is the first one enabling the mass production for fully flexible displays in the industry. It represents a significant breakthrough in the display and smartphone industry. It features simplified process integration and ultra-low temperature budget, which helps to realize the excellent characteristics of fully flexible display including outstanding bending reliability, high yield rate, and low costs, etc.
**：LTPS, or the Low Temperature Poly-Silicon, is a branch of poly-silicon technology used to produce conventional LCD and rigid flat or curved AMOLED, which involves high-cost equipment investment and process steps, process at high temperature and complicated integration in manufacturing process.
***：3S™ Hinge, or the Super Seamless & Stepless Hinge, is Royole’s proprietary technology designed for fully flexible display applications and foldable smartphones. It features stepless, auto-lock capabilities, a zero-gap design when folded, a perfect flatness when unfolded, while being thin and light.
Watch YouTube announcement here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_wEGZueUVg&feature=youtu.be
About Royole Corporation
Royole Corporation is a pioneer and the global leader in the flexible technology industry that is transforming the way people experience and interact with the world. Royole has developed its proprietary flexible technology to produce fully flexible displays (FFD) and sensors (FFS), and a full range of next-generation human-machine interface products, including foldable smartphones and other smart devices. Royole also provides tailored solutions to its clients in six major industries – smart mobile devices, smart transportation, media and entertainment, sports and fashion, smart home, and office and education.
Royole's significant intellectual property rights and innovative engineering and design capabilities enabled the company to achieve a number of industry milestones, including the world’s thinnest full-color FFD, the world’s first FFD mass production facility, and the world’s first foldable smartphone with flexible display brought to market, FlexPai®.
Founded in 2012, Royole Corporation has offices in Shenzhen, Hong Kong and California. For more information, please visit: www.royole.com.
