Rollable OLED Display TerraCanvas: Televisions That Roll Into a Wall-Mounted Box Like a Scroll

TerraCanvas, jointly released by LG Display and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, is the first mass-production-grade rollable OLED display. When not in use, the screen rolls into a small wall-mounted box. When needed, it unrolls into a 65-inch large screen, completing the deployment in as little as 15 seconds, with a refresh rate of 120 Hz.

The project grew out of long-running work on flexible display technology. The concept of rollable OLED has existed in labs for more than ten years, but the main barrier to mass production was durability. Repeated rolling causes microcracks in the screen's organic materials, leading to rapid degradation in display performance. The LG Display and KAIST team worked together for four years and finally overcame two key process bottlenecks.

The first breakthrough is a new organic emissive layer material. Traditional OLED emissive layers use small-molecule materials, which crystallize after repeated bending and cause brightness loss. The new material uses a block copolymer structure in which the emissive molecules are chemically bonded to a flexible backbone, dramatically improving bending lifetime. Tests show the new material can withstand more than 100,000 rolling cycles, fifty times the lifetime of traditional OLED.

The second breakthrough is a backlight-free design. Traditional OLED screens need a metal backplate to prevent water vapor intrusion, but metal backplates are rigid and cannot roll. TerraCanvas uses an ultrathin multilayer water-blocking film to replace the metal backplate. This blocking film is made of alternating layers of aluminum oxide and polymer, with a total thickness of just 80 micrometers, and a water vapor transmission rate below 10 to the minus 6 grams per square meter per day, meeting international OLED protection standards.

For commercialization, LG Display will launch TerraCanvas products in Korea, North America, and Europe in the second half of 2026, including 65-inch and 77-inch versions. The 65-inch version is priced at about 8.9 million won (around 65,000 dollars), and the 77-inch version at about 12.9 million won (around 95,000 dollars). LG Household and Health Care has announced that TerraCanvas will be pre-installed in a premium residential project in the Gangnam district of Seoul as a standard smart home screen.

The biggest advantage of TerraCanvas lies in spatial flexibility. Traditional large-screen TVs occupy a fixed wall in the living room, while TerraCanvas can roll up and be stored away, returning the living room to a normal space. Pull out the screen for a TV series, fold it away to free up space for a family gathering. This flexibility is especially valuable in small urban apartments, where residential space is tight in cities like Seoul, Tokyo, and Hong Kong.

Critics point out that TerraCanvas is still priced high and only accessible to the high-end consumer market. LG Display responded that as production ramps up and processes mature, the target is to bring the 65-inch version below 5 million won by 2028. Professor Sungho Park, who heads the materials science department at KAIST, said the rollable screen technology will expand to laptops, in-vehicle displays, and wearables.