OLED

A recent study by Harvard researchers find that E Ink displays with front lighting are up to three times less stressful for retinal cells than LCD displays. E Ink displays without a front light do not emit any blue light and so are not stressing retinal cells at all.

Blue light, according to researchers, is potentially harmful when emitted into the eyes for hours at a time. Blue light poses a hazard to retinal cells in the eye, and exposure to blue light near bedtime reduces levels of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin, disrupting the circadian rhythm and restorative sleep.

The effects of blue light are known for a long time, and this new research finding is not surprising.

OLED displays are currently the most advanced displays in production, offering superior image quality, efficiency, flexibility and more. Here's our new short video that introduces OLED display technology and the current market status:

E Ink Holdings reported its financial results for Q1 2016 - revenues were  NT$2.5 billion ($76.6 million USD) and the net loss was NT$272 million ($3.84 USD) - down from a net profit of NT$766 in Q4 2015 (but up from a loss of $1.23 billion in Q1 2015).

EIH says that its licensing revenues from Hydis FFS LCD technology is lower than it used to be because the display industry is shifting from LCD to OLED technologies.

Our sister sites OLED-Info and Graphene-Info announced a new market report, Graphene for the Display and Lighting industries. This report, brought to you by the world's leading OLED and Graphene experts, is a comprehensive guide to the applications of graphene in these two important markets.

Graphene is an exciting material that promises to revolutionize entire industries - as it provides unprecedented conductivity, heat conduction, flexibility and strength. Graphene has a bright future in the display and lighting industries.

Reading this report, you'll learn all about:

• Graphene applications in LED and OLED lighting
• Graphene's adoption as a backplane for AMOLEDs
• Transparent graphene electrodes
• Graphene-based encapsulation development

Other topics include:

• Graphene companies involved with display and lighting
• An introduction to graphene
• An introduction to lighting and displays
• Details about graphene for QDs, lasers and thermal foils

In August 2015 Polyera, a US-based OTFT backplane developer, announced their first product, the Wove Band flexible E Ink smart band, to be released in the second half of 2016. We wanted to learn more about Polyera's technology and business, and the company's Special Projects VP, Brendan Florez, was kind enough to answer a few questions we had.

Brendan has been with Polyera since 2008. Prior to joining Polyera, Brendan was an early employee at Rosetta, a digital marketing agency. Brendan holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University.

Plastic Logic, the OTFT backplane developer and EPD producer has split into two companies. Plastic Logic will remain as an EPD developer and producer (based in Dresden, Germany) while FlexEnable (based in Cambridge, UK) will handle the OTFT backplane development and offer technology licenses to display makers.

Here's an article from OLED-Info explaining Plastic Logic's technology. In September 2014 Plastic Logic demonstrated the world's first display based on a graphene backplane (a 150-PPI active-matrix E Ink panel).

Plastic Logic and Cambridge University recently demonstrated the world's first flexible display with a graphene backplane. This display is a 150 PPI E Ink panel:

Plastic Logic now aims to use a similar backplane to drive a full-color OLED.

A couple of weeks ago we reported that Scott Liu (E Ink Holidings' Chairman and CEO) resigned from the company due to personal reasons, and today we're sad to report that Sriram Peruvemba, E Ink's marketing chief is also leaving. Sriram has been with E Ink since 2007, and will go to work for Cambrios as their CMO. Cambrios makes transparent conductors using silver nano wires - and these can be used for in OLED displays , LCDs, e-paper displays and solar panels.

On a personal note I want to wish Sriram all the best. He's always been friendly and helpful for me here at E-Ink-Info and I'll surely miss him at E Ink. I hope the company will find someone capable and nice enough to take his place...

Lux Research posted an interesting grid that shows how different display developers rate on technical value and business execution. It includes mature technologies like OLED and electrophoretic and emerging technologies such as electrochromic and electrofluidic displays.

E Ink comes up on top in both technical value and business execution is E Ink - with high score in technology and IP and strong partnerships and management team. In face, E Ink is the only company that scores a "strong positive" - with their nearly 100% market share of the electrophoretic market - which is used in products such as Amazon's Kindle and B&N Nook e-readers.

Update: The giveaway rules have changed a bit - in addition to liking the OLED-Info page, you'll need to like the giveaway post on facebook as well... The random winner will be chosen from all the people who like the post and are an OLED-Info fan as well. Good luck!

Our sister-site OLED-Info is running an holiday giveaway - with a chance to win a free copy of The OLED Handbook, and two phosphor world-time E Ink watches (which were kindly provided by E Ink). These three cool prizes will be randomly given to three lucky fans of OLED-Info's facebook page on January 1st. To participate, click like on the OLED-Info page, and also like the giveaway post.

The Phosphor world-time E Ink watch has a SURF (segmented) E Ink display that offers 24 time zones and several displays modes. It's a large watch, and it takes some time to get used to, but it looks good and draws a lot of attention... Here's our hands review of this watch. This watch costs $125 at Amazon.com (although it's currently out-of-stock).