Bending tolerance of ferroelectric liquid crystal with polymer walls fastening plastic substrates

We studied ferroelectric liquid crystal (LC) deformation in a flexible display device using thin plastic substrates supported by polymer walls. During direct microscope observation of the bent device, no disorder of LC alignment was recognized with LC material flow, which was induced by the thickness change of the LC layer. From the estimated deformation of the bent LC layer (curvature radius: 10 mm) between the extendable substrates, the difference in length between the outer and inner planes of the LC layer was evaluated at only 50 nm, which was extremely small compared with the polymer wall interval (250 μm). The extendable thin substrate is useful for enhancement of the bending tolerance of flexible devices.