The Army's Flexible Display Center (FDC) at Arizona State University (ASU)

As Army transformation unfolds through the Future Combat Systems FCS program, the ability to perform essential command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissancemobility C4ISRM functions for combat vehicles and dismounted warfighters is vital. These applications will require some kind of compact, thin-profile display. Unfortunately, key flat panel display features being produced for todays commercial electronics market make them unsuitable for emerging military applications. Conventional displays tend to consume too much power and are usually made out of glass. This feature means that they require expensive and bulky ruggedization before they can be incorporated into military systems, adding significant size and weight to the actual component. For the dismounted Soldier, the high-power requirements of current displays compel the Soldier to bear the additional weight of batteries during operations. Since the late 1990s, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Army have been investigating a number of innovative new flat panel display technologies that can be made on unbreakable substrates such as thin metal foils or even sheets of plastic. These flexible display technologies would significantly improve many of the size, weight, and power characteristics of todays commercial displays. Looking forward, they also promise lightweight, large-format displays that could be folded or rolled up for storage or transportation. By the early part of this decade, primitive prototypes of a number of flexible display technologies developed under DoD programs had been demonstrated. However, the efforts to develop these prototypes revealed a number of challenges that must be met to perfect the technology to the point that it can be reliably manufactured.