Electronic Paper

Electronic paper overview in Communications of the ACM, Nov. 2009

A survey article in CACM on electronic paper.

Kirk L. Kroeker

November 1, 2009

The technological challenge for researchers working on the next generation of electronic paper is to render color as brightly as traditional paper, without increasing power requirements or end-user costs.

Products and systems mentioned include a technical from Philips called in-plate electrophoretics; here's a paragraph about it from a May 2009 MIT Technology Review

Philips's technique, which is called in-plane electrophoretics, differs in that it involves suspending colored particles in a clear liquid and moving them horizontally instead of vertically. Each pixel is made up of two microcapsule chambers: one containing yellow and cyan particles, the other, below, containing magenta and black particles. Within each microcapsule, one set of colored particles is charged positively while the other is charged negatively.

Another technology worth noting is from the University of Cincinnati Novel Devices Laboratory, which uses a technique called an "electrofluidic display".  Their description of it:

Shown at right is our new ‘electrofluidic’ display structure which reduces the visible area of the colored fluid by 2-3X more than that of an electrowetting display.  The electrofluidic architecture is further unique from electrowetting displays in driving principles, device structure, potential for bistability, reduced parallax for multi-layer subtractive color pixels, in tight pixel confinement for rollable displays, and in use of water-dispersed pigments instead of oil soluble dyes.  We chose the ‘electrofluidic’ nomenclature because the mechanism involves charge induced movement of liquids through microfluidic cavities.

Printing electronic circuits on cardboard at 0.8 meters/sec

One part of a future world of inexpensive electronics with displays printed on paper or paper-y things is manufacturing processes which work to create large print runs at speed. gizmag reports this "Breakthrough in printed electronics":

The circuits were printed at a printing speed of up to 0.8 metres per second which although slow for printing, is a new dimension of production speed for electronics. Millionfold print runs will become possible. The polymer printing method is based on especially developed printing methods i.e. polymer molecules that are either conductive, semiconductive or isolating are accurately printed in ultrathin layers, one above the other. These polymers can be processed similar to ink. Compared to traditional printing, however, the demands on precision as well as on the chemical characteristics of the printing inks are considerably higher. A single mistake in printing will immediately lead to malfunctions of the printed circuit.

A switching frequency of 1 Hz was achieved with the used structural resolution of 100 µm. Prof. Dr. Arved Hübler, head of the Institute for Print and Media Technology at Chemnitz University of Technology whose research team already introduced the first mass printed single transistor in 2003, explains: "We have successfully met a great challenge in this project because the printing of electronics put completely new demands on materials, methods and machines different from those known from traditional printing.

The researchers at the Institute for Print and Media Technology have realised new developments in mechanical engineering and process technology in order to meet the very high demands of electronic circuits on printing characteristics."

The project was coordinated by BASF Future Business and included researchers from BASF, Lucent Technologies Bell Labs, printed systems GmbH in Chemnitz as well as the Institute for Print and Media Technology at Chemnitz University of Technology.

Photo: TU-Chemnitz via idw.

WaPo: "Ink and Paper or 1s and 0s?"

Frank Ahrens from the Washington Post chimes in on the newspapery fictional universe of a cheap flexible screen in "Ink and Paper or 1s and 0s?"

Would you read this story if it were electronically printed on a paper-thin video screen the size of a tabloid newspaper, or maybe something bigger, like The Washington Post, and resembling a vinyl placemat, like the image you see under these words? What if this new electronic paper could be folded under your arm like your dad's sports section or rolled up inside your yoga mat?

As newspapers fight declining circulation and face rising newsprint costs -- and their corporate owners demand wider profit margins -- editors, publishers, reporters and technologists have worked over the past few years to devise new, paperless ways to deliver the news.

I'm sorry if I sound cranky, but this sounds like just one more story slightly divorced from reality about how large flat flexible displays are going to lead to "electronic newspapers". Why should the bitstream from the Washington Post get e-ink on that screen and not, say, Memeorandom, or Google News, some other future news aggregator that tells you what everyone else is looking at in your field of interest. Just because the new medium would happen to be big and flexible and flat and electronic doesn't mean it is suited for the mush of news, ads, features and editorial that comes from most newspapers.

UPDATE 10/18/05: More commentary from if:book: "a future written in electronic ink?" referencing the WaPo piece.

Siemens next with electronic paper - in 2007?

From the Guardian: "Paper view technology"

Cheap, paper-thin TV screens that can be used in newspapers and magazines have been unveiled by German electronics giant Siemens.

The firm says the low production costs could see the magazine shelves in newsagents come alive with moving images vying for the customers' attention as they move along the aisle.

The new technology caused a sensation when it was first made public this week at the Plastics Electronics trade fair in Frankfurt.

but as usual, the devil is in the details - this is vaporware so far:

The Siemens spokesman said that one square metre of the material costs around £30, and scientists working on the screens said they should be available by 2007.

If it were product managers predicting the future, that's one thing, but this as with all e-paper schemes is still in the labs.

A slightly longer bit of news here (warning, lots of ads) from physorg: "Wafer-Thin Color Displays for Packaging".

UPDATE: more commentary from David Rothman at TeleRead: "So how long until this miracle display is fit for e-books?"

Fujitsu in the latest of claims of electronic paper for fridge doors, all ready in a few years

The Times Online (UK) delivers a typically breathless newspaper version of the world of thin flexible displays, here described as "e-paper":

E-paper scrolls will unfurl from the backs of mobile phones to form large screens for viewing websites and reading maps. Fridge doors coated in e-paper could deliver downloads of recipes or traffic updates. Almost any level surface, in fact, could become an e-paper billboard.

Takashi Uchiyama, the head of e-paper development at Fujitsu, confidently told The Times that his product “will be everywhere, soon”.

Fujitsu says that the first commercial uses of its product will begin in Japanese supermarkets and commuter trains next year, and will probably spread quickly from there. Fujitsu’s chief rival in the e-paper game, Dai-Nippon Printing, has a similar product — it is more flexible, but has less richness of colour — that will also enter commercial production next year.

The original Fujitsu e-paper PR is from July 2005:

Tokyo, July 13, 2005 — Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd., Fujitsu Frontech Limited, and Fujitsu Limited today announced their joint development of the world's first film substrate-based bendable color electronic paper with an image memory function. The new electronic paper features vivid color images that are unaffected even when the screen is bent, and features an image memory function that enables continuous display of the same image without the need for electricity. The thin and flexible electronic paper uses very low power to change screen images, thereby making it ideal for displaying information or advertisements in public areas as a type of new electronic media that can be handled as easily as paper.

For anyone with a long memory, electronic paper has been a couple of years away since at least May 1997, viz. this Wired article on Digital Ink:

Jacobson thinks a working e-book is just a couple of years away, with a retail price of maybe $400.

uh huh.