Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) has topped the 2010 Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award for its flexible and paper-thin display.

ITRI's Flexible Universal Plane for Displays (FlexUPD) won the contest's Gold award by besting 597 other entries from companies, organizations and individuals in 30 countries, the newspaper reported on Monday. It is the same technology that won for ITRI the 2010 Annual R&D 100 Awards in July.

ITRI also won a runner-up WSJ Technology Innovation award in the semiconductor category for its Micro-Deformable Piezoresistive Sensor technology.

ITRI started developing the FlexUPD in 2006 in anticipation of a flexible trend in electronics. It finally developed the material in 2008, according to Dr. Jonq-min Lin, executive vice president of ITRI and general director of the company's Material and Chemical Research Laboratories. ITRI's division directors Cheng-Chung Lee and Tzong-Ming Lee developed the technology.

FlexUPD is far more advanced than the metal film substrates and laser removal technology used by panel display manufacturers. It is also user-friendly and low cost.

The FlexUPD is made of ultra-thin and transparent soft plastic substrate, where transistors are layered and enclosed. The material can be cut from the glass stage to make ultra-thin and rollable display that is only 0.01 centimeter thick. The process involves the smooth removal of the plastic substrate from the glass stage using a non-stick de-bonding layer material specially developed by ITRI.

ITRI used the technology in making a 6-inch color flexible AMOLED with a bending radius below 5 centimeters surpassing the bending performance of other flexible displays in the world. The display also has a brightness of up to 150 nits and is capable of playing color movies and animations.