新型显示屏薄如纸张可随意弯曲

最近有科学家正在研发一种全新的“电子纸”技术，这种“电子纸”其实就是一种超薄的柔性显示屏，具有很高的能效性，并且在阳光直射或明亮环境中也可以清晰地显示出内容。这种柔性显示屏的厚度只有不到1微米，所需能量仅为Kindle的十分之一。

Researchers have developed electronic ‘paper’ that is less than a micrometre thin and works like a Kindle tablet – but requires far less energy.

研发人员已研制出电子“纸片”，厚度不足一微米，功能可与Kindle平板相当，不过其能耗更低。

The bendable display reflects light to produce as many colours as an LED screen, and unlike the latter, it thrives in brightly lit areas.

可弯曲的显示屏在光的反射下产生如同LED显示屏一样五彩斑斓的颜色，但与后者不同，这种显示屏只有在光线明亮的区域才会产生色彩。

The team has so far built and tested a few pixels of the material, and while it’s not yet ready for application, they say manufacturing a product with the display is likely soon to come.

迄今为止，研发团队已经制作并测试了材料的多种像素，虽然目前还不适合应用，但他们表示其产品的大规模生产将很快成为现实。

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology stumbled upon the combination to create the electronic display while working on placing conductive polymers on nanostructures.

查尔姆斯理工大学研究人员在将导电聚合物放置在纳米结构上时，偶然发现二者结合可制造出电子显示屏。

The thin, flexible material relies on the polymers’ ability to control how light is absorbed and reflected.

这种轻薄、灵活可弯曲的“显示屏”主要取决于该聚合物控制光线吸收和反射的能力。

These polymers cover the surface of the material, and guide electric signals throughout the full display to create high resolution images.

这些聚合物覆盖在材料表面，引导电信号在整个显示屏进行传输，从而产生高分辨率图像。

The results are described in a paper published to the journal Advanced Materials.

该研究成果的论文刊登在《新材料》杂志上。

‘The “paper” is similar to the Kindle tablet,’ says Andreas Dahlin.

安德里亚斯•达林说，“这张电子‘纸片’和Kindle平板差不多。”

‘It isn’t lit up like a standard display, but rather reflects the external light which illuminates it. Therefore it works very well where there is bright light, such as out in the sun, in contrast to standard LED displays that work best in darkness.

“它并不像标准显示屏一样被点亮，只能通过外部光线反射才能发光。因此，它在光线明亮时工作很好，比如太阳光下，而标准LED显示屏则在黑暗中工作最佳。”

‘At the same time it needs only a tenth of the energy that a Kindle tablet uses, which itself uses much less energy than a tablet LED display.’

“同时，它所需能量仅为Kindle平板电脑的十分之一，其本身能耗也比平板LED显示屏要少得多。”

According to the researchers, the samples they've so far built and tested use the same red, green, and blue colours which combine to give LEDs their vibrant displays.

研发人员表示，他们目前研制并测试的样本使用红色、绿色和蓝色，这也是组合出LED能显示的所有鲜艳色彩的三种颜色。

Moving forward, they will build pixels to cover much larger areas.

接下来，他们将构建更多的像素来覆盖更大的区域。

‘We are working at a fundamental level but even so, the step to manufacturing a product out of it shouldn’t be too far away,’ Dahlin says.

达林说：“我们的研究还处于基础层面，但即使这样，距离生产该类产品也不远了。”

‘What we need now are engineers.’

“我们目前需要的是工程师。”

This type of material could be used outside for public displays, the researcher says, helping to reduce energy consumption and upgrade signs and information screens to be both electric and flexible.

研发人员说，这种类型的材料可以应用在室外的公共显示屏上，既能减少能耗，又能将指示屏和信息屏升级成电子化且可弯曲的显示屏。

The researchers are working to improve their design, which currently uses gold and silver, and would thus be expensive to manufacture.

研发人员还在优化设计，因为目前显示器使用的是金和银，生产成本太高。

‘The gold surface is 20 nanometres thick so there is not that much gold in it,’ says Dahlin.

达林说：“金制表面的厚度为20毫微米，因此制造这样一个产品并不需要特别多的黄金。”

‘But at present there is a lot of gold wasted in manufacturing it. Either we reduce the waste or we find another way to decrease the manufacturing cost.’

“但在目前的制造过程中，很多黄金被浪费。所以我们要么减少浪费，要么寻找另外一种方式来降低生产成本。”

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