KAIST develops stretchable display platform that keeps images sharp under strain

South Korean researchers have developed a core technology for stretchable displays that prevents images from distorting or warping when the screen is stretched.

KAIST announced Wednesday that a research team led by Professor Yoo Seung-hyup of the School of Electrical Engineering, working with a team led by Professor Moon Han-eol of Dong-A University, has successfully built an auxetic-based stretchable display platform. Auxetic structures expand in both width and length when pulled, allowing the screen to stretch uniformly in all directions without distorting the images on it.

Conventional stretchable displays place light-emitting elements on a stretchable substrate — the base layer of the display. When such a substrate is stretched in one direction, it narrows in the perpendicular direction, causing text and images to appear squashed. Auxetic structures have been applied to address this, but most solutions only preserved the overall aspect ratio of the screen, leaving text and images inside the display still prone to distortion.

Instead of the conventional approach, the research team proposed a new design method that uses precise calculations to connect components selectively, only where needed.

In the new platform, each region moves outward evenly from its original position, so that not only the overall screen proportions but also fine details — text, graphics and other small elements — expand while retaining their original shape.

The team verified performance by repeatedly stretching a substrate engraved with text and graphics in both horizontal and vertical directions. The conventional approach caused partial deformation of the patterns, while the new platform kept the shapes of letters and images stable throughout. The results demonstrated that the platform can uniformly expand even fine internal images without distortion, not just the outer edges of the screen.

The team also integrated an LED array — multiple LEDs arranged at regular intervals — onto the platform to verify its performance as a stretchable display. Even when stretched up to 15 percent in both horizontal and vertical directions, electrical current flowed stably and screen brightness was maintained. After repeated stretching cycles to 15 percent, brightness loss remained below 2 percent, confirming the platform's viability for real display applications.

The technology can be applied to a wide range of freeform electronic devices beyond stretchable displays, including wearable displays, skin-attachable electronics, electronic skin, expandable mobile displays, curved and freeform displays, and medical monitoring patches.

It can also serve as the basis for an expandable display structure in which the viewable area grows when the screen is stretched while the proportions of text, icons and video are preserved.

"For a stretchable display to function as a practical information display device, it is not enough for it simply to stretch well — the information on screen must also be accurately maintained throughout the stretching process," Yoo said. "This platform achieves uniform expansion from the smallest regions of the screen to the full display, and will serve as a key foundational technology to accelerate the commercialization of high-resolution stretchable displays."

The findings were published in the international journal Nature Communications on June 4.