E-paper technologies - Page 5

A new Chinese-Finnish joint project aims to bring low cost e-paper devices and broadcast technologies to remote population and disaster struck areas. The plan is to create a low-cost, energy efficient (enough to run from solar power) e-paper device. This device will only receive information, and not transmit any.

The information will be broadcast via a digital television signal, and will bring news, education material and official government bulletins.

Taiwan's ITRI developed a new technology called i2R e-paper. It's a 're-writable' paper. The idea is that the image on the paper does not change - until you pass it through a special thermal printer which can then change the image - but only about 260 times or so. The i2R uses heat-activated liquid crystals and can achieve up to 300dpi (monochrome).

Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) is showing new large (100x24cm) flexible e-paper based on Cholesteric LCD. It's shaped like a scroll - printed on what seems to be a red/gold fabric.

According to reports, this display is very power efficient and doesn't seem pixelated at all. The monochrome display itself is showing some Chinese characters (translated as 'establish country 100 years', apparently, referring to the overthrow of the Ch'ing dynasty in 1911). It seems that this is a segmented display and not a matrix display. It's a shame that we do not have any technical info on this display yet.

CopyTele announced it has signed two license agreements with AUO to produce and market their e-paper and nano-display (LVND) technologies. AUO's e-paper license is exclusive and they can also sublicense the technology to third parties. The nano-display patents license is non exclusive.

AUO will pay $10 million to CopyTele for those license. There are also royalty payments by AUO. CopyTele's e-paper technology is electrophoretic based and utilizes specially coated particles in combination with a unique type of pixel structure to create an image.

Portugal's Ynvisible won a grant from the Portuguese National Strategic Reference Framework (QREN) to help develop electrochromic displays. The total project is valued at over €1 million. Ynvisible's electrochromic ink technology is aimed towards packaging, advertising, print media, signage and smart wearables. Initial products will include point-of-sale posters and advertising.

Our sister-site OLED-Info launched a new book today - The OLED Handbook. This is a comprehensive guide to OLED technology, market and industry. There is a growing interest in OLEDs - from all over the world, and this guide can help introduce the subject quickly and throughly.

Reading this book, you'll learn all about:

• OLED technology and materials
• What kind of OLED displays are available today
• What is a Super AMOLED and a Clear Black display
• All about OLED lighting technology
• OLED lighting panels and lamps available today
• The future of OLED displays and lighting
• And lot's more!

A few days ago we reported about a new color e-paper prototype by Ricoh, and now we have some more details. Ricoh used a novel method which involves stacking three layers of electrochromic panels, one on top of the other, each reflecting different colors (yellow, cyan, magenta). This can create color pixels without sub pixels. All three layers are driven by one LTPS TFT.

The display on show was 3.5" in size (113ppi) with a 27% color gamut (NTSC).

Ricoh is showing a new color e-paper prototype. The company claims that it's 2.5 times brighter than any other e-paper technology, and have a wider color range (four times wider!).

BnF-Lab is showing a new e-paper drawing tablet this week. It uses an A4-sized e-paper panel, although we're not sure who made this panel: as Bridgestone, Epson and Samsung are all mentioned as sponsored, and these three use different e-paper technologies.

Seiko Epson has developed a new platform for e-paper display control that enabled high-speed refreshes for 300ppi resolution displays. The platform includes a display controller, application processor and power-supply chip and will be released in April 2011.