At the SID Display event today, Samsung Display unveiled their latest display innovations which included "Rollable Flex," which aims to revolutionize the portability of tablet PCs or laptops, and Sensor OLED display, which provides new usability by embedding fingerprint and blood pressure sensors in panels without attaching separate modules. With these and other OLED innovations, Samsung is demonstrating its drive to create and lead new market segments. Interestingly, Patently Apple posted a report back on March 3, 2023 titled "An Apple microLED Display Patent describes integrating features such as Fingerprint and Health Sensing …" revealing the same thing Samsung did today with a different display technology. 

Sensor OLED Display: The World’s First Fingerprint Biosensor-Embedded Panel measures Blood Pressure with OLED Light

Samsung Display will also unveil a new Sensor OLED Display that can recognize fingerprints anywhere on the screen and even check cardiovascular health. Typically, fingerprint sensors in smartphones are attached under the panel as a separate module from the panel, but Samsung Display embedded the light-sensing organic photodiode (OPD) into the panel itself. 

Sensor OLED Display can measure the user’s heart rate, blood pressure and stress level simply with the touch of two fingers. OLED light is reflected differently depending on the contraction and relaxation of the blood vessels inside the finger, and when it returns to the panel, the OPD recognizes it and converts it into health information. Samsung Display is the first to unveil panel technology that can simultaneously sense fingerprints and biometric information.

 “To accurately measure a person’s blood pressure, it is necessary to measure the blood pressure of both arms,” said a Samsung Display. “The Sensor OLED display can simultaneously sense the fingers of both hands, providing more accurate health information than existing wearable devices.”

You have to wonder if this display could be adopted by Apple in the future for any of their mobile devices, such as the iPhone and/or Apple Watch.

Next-Gen Scrollable Displays and More

Last year Patently Apple posted a report titled "Samsung Engineers go on a patent Blitz presenting varying Smartphone designs based on Expandable Display Form Factors." One of the themes was scrollable displays. On May 11, 2023 Samsung once again filed for a scrollable display smartphone patent. One of the patent figures from that Samsung patent is presented below.

At the SID Display event, Samsung took the scrollable display to whole new level when the introduced "Rollable Flex" displays which can expand more than five times, from 49 mm (2") to 254.4 mm (10") in length. While conventional foldable or slidable form factors offer up to three times the scalability, Rollable Flex overcomes such limitations by enabling the display to be rolled and unrolled on an O-shaped axis like a scroll.

The biggest feature is that we were able to turn a difficult-to-carry large-sized display into a portable form factor by making it rollable,” Samsung Display explained.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Samsung Display will also introduce Flex In & Out, a new foldable phone concept that can be folded both inward and outward 360 degrees. The ‘in-folding’ form factor, which can only be folded inward, requires a separate external panel to view information while folded, but the Flex In & Out is able to overcome that, opening up the possibility of lighter and thinner foldable phones.

(click on image to enlarge)

In addition, Samsung Display will also introduce new form factor products, such as Flex Hybrid, which combines both foldable and slidable technologies, and Slidable Flex Solo, which expands from a 13-inch tablet to a 17-inch screen.