Organic light-emitting fibers and fabrics for truly wearable smart displays: Recent progress and future opportunities

Abstract

Smart displays have been integrated into our daily life, providing new concepts of interconnections between humans and interactivity with close collaboration between users. As a centerpiece of this integration, textile displays that can be worn like clothes are being intensively developed and are poised to provide a more intimate and closer connection. Among various light sources that have been used in the field of textile displays, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have attracted considerable attention as one of the promising candidates for realizing truly wearable textile displays (i.e., wearing displays) in that they have shown the highest level of technical maturity, including high optoelectronic performance and flexibility, which can provide not only clear visual information and versatility regardless of the surrounding environment but have also been industrially proven. This review introduces the recent progress in OLED-based textile displays and related technologies, with the discussion of challenges and limitations of the fiber- and fabric-based approaches. Additionally, specific opinions are provided on research opportunities for organic light-emitting textile displays, which can contribute to realizing truly wearable textile displays with a complete platform in the future.