Introduction

Electronic paper, e-paper or electronic ink display is a display technology designed to

mimic the appearance of ordinary ink on paper. Unlike a conventional flat panel display, which

uses a backlight to illuminate its pixels, electronic paper reflects light like ordinary paper. It is

capable of holding text and images indefinitely without drawing electricity, while allowing the

image to be changed later.

1.1 What is E-Paper Technology.?

The terms electronic paper, e-paper describe a range of display technologies which are

designed to mimic the appearance of ordinary ink on paper Electronic paper displays reflect light

like ordinary paper In this many of the technologies are capable of holding text and images

indefinitely without drawing electricity, while allowing the image to be changed late

1.2 Who Invented E-Paper Technology?

Electronic paper was first developed in the 1970s by Nicholas K Sheridon at Xerox’s at

Palo Alto Research Center. The first electronic paper, called GYRICON consisted of

polyethylene spheres between 75 and 106 micro meters across. Each sphere is a JENUS

PARTICLE composed of negatively charged black plastic on one side and positively charged

white plastic on the other. The spheres are embedded in a transparent silicone sheet, with each

sphere suspended in a bubble of oil so that they can rotate freely. The polarity of the voltage

applied to each pair of electrodes then determines whether the white or black side is face-up, thus

giving the pixel a white or black appearance. At the FPD 2008 exhibition, Japanese company

Soken has demonstrated a wall with electronic wall-paper using this technology.

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1.3 How E-Paper Technology Works?

It based on a thin sheet of flexible plastic containing a layer of tiny plastic beads each

encapsulated in oil and it rotate freely. Each hemisphere of a bead has different coloured and

different electric charge. Electric field is applied the beads are rotate, create two-coloured

pattern.

Paper Windows system overview.

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1.4 How to use E-Paper Technology?

E-paper comprises two different parts: the first is electronic ink, sometimes

referred to as the “front plane”; and the second is the electronics required to generate the

pattern of text and images on the e-ink page, called the “backplane”.

Over the years, a number of methods for creating e-ink have been developed. On

a thin sheet of flexible plastic containing a layer of tiny plastic beads, each encapsulated

in a little pocket of oil and thus able to freely rotate within the plastic sheet. Each

hemisphere of a bead has a different color and a different electrical charge. When an

electric field is applied by the backplane, the beads rotate, creating a two-colored pattern.

This method of creating e-ink was dubbed bichromal front plane. Originally, bichromal

front plane had a number of limitations, including relatively low brightness and

resolution and a lack of color. Although these issues are still being tackled, other forms of

e-ink, with improved properties compared to the original Gyricon, have been developed

over the years.

One such technology is electrophoretic front plane, developed by the E Ink

Corporation Electrophoretic front plane consists of millions of tiny microcapsules, each

approximately 100 microns in diameter—about as wide as a human hair. Each

microcapsule is filled with a clear fluid containing positively charged white particles and

negatively charged black particles. When a negative electric field is applied, the white

particles move to the top of the microcapsule, causing the area to appear to the viewer as

a white dot, while the black particles move to the bottom of the capsule and are thus

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hidden from view. When a positive electric field is applied, the black particles migrate to

the top and the white particles move to the bottom, generating black text or a picture.

The brightness and resolution of electrophoretic-based e-ink is better than that of

bichromal-based e-ink, but both are monochromatic in nature. To create color, E Ink

joined hands with the Japanese company Toppan Printing, which produces color filters.

Another drawback of electrophoretic e-ink is its low refresh rate, making

electrophoretic e-ink unsuitable for displaying animation or video. Since it takes time for

the particles to move from one side of the microcapsule to the other, drawing a new text

or image is too slow and creates a flicker effect. 

A completely different solution for creating e-paper, known as cholesterol liquid

crystal (ChLCD), is being developed by such companies as IBM and Philips, as well as

HP and Fujitsu, which have demonstrated actual devices. ChLCD technology is based on

the well-known and widespread technology of liquid crystal displays (LCDs), which

work by applying a current to spiral-shaped liquid-crystal molecules that can change from

a vertical to a horizontal position.

Although other potential technologies for developing advanced color electronic

paper exist such as photonic crystals (P-ink) recently covered by TFOT, many analysts

believe that ChLCD technology could become the dominant e-paper technology of the

next decade.

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Features of E-paper Technology?

Education: digital schoolbooks

In January 2007, the Dutch specialist in e-Paper edupaper.nl started a pilot project in a

secondary school in Maastricht, using e-Paper as digital schoolbooks to reduce costs and

students' daily burden of books.

Wristwatches

In December 2005 Seiko released their Spectrum SVRD001 wristwatch, which has a

flexible electrophoretic display and in March 2010 Seiko released a second generation of this

famous e-ink watch with an active matrix display. Phosphors of Hong Kong have launched 3

series of watches using flexible electrophoretic display using eink technology.

E-Books

In September 2006 Sony released the PRS-500 Sony Reader e-book reader. On October

2, 2007, Sony announced the PRS-505, an updated version of the Reader. In November 2008,

Sony released the PRS-700BC which incorporated backlight and a touchscreen. IN November

2006, the iRex iLaid was ready for the consumer market. Consumers could initially read e-Books

in PDF and HTML formats, and in JulyE-Paper2007 support for the popular mobipocket PRC

format was added, but price was still a problem. With the introduction of the competing cybook,

prices have decreased almost 50%.In late 2007, Amazon began producing and marketing the

Amazon kindles ane-book with an e-paper display. In February 2009, Amazon released

thekindle2 and in May 2009 the larger kindle dx was announced.

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Newspapers

In February 2006, the Flemish daily De Tijd distributed an electronic version of the paper

to select subscribers in a limited marketing study, using a prerelease version of the iRex iLaid.

This was the first recorded application of electronic ink to newspaper publishing. IN September

2007, the French daily les Echos announced the official launch of an electronic version of the

paper on a subscription basis. Two offers are available, combining a one year subscription and a

reading device. One interesting point of the offer is the choice of a light reading device or the

iRex iLaid. Two different processing platforms are used to deliver readable information of the

daily, one based on the newly developed GPP electronic ink platform fromGanaxa, and the other

one developed internally by LesEchos.E-PaperSince January 2008, the Dutch daily NRC

handelsbade is distributed for the Readerirex iLaid.

Digital Photo Frame

In the future as electronic paper displays improve and full high quality color is possible,

the technology may become incorporated in digital photo frame products. Existing digital photo

frames require a constant power supply and have a limited viewing angle and physical thickness

that is inferior to aconventionalphotograph. A digital photo frame using e-paper technology

would address all of these shortcomings. A well-designed digital photo frame using an electronic

ink display could, in theory, run for months or years from batteries, because such a device would

require electricity only to briefly boot up to connect to a other storage device and change the

display before powering off all components.

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Information Board

An extension of the Digital Photo Frame concept is to display other media such as

webpages or other documents. Examples include web pages such as news sites or status pages

such as stocks or other information. The current days weather forecast would be a good example

for installation in a domestic location such as near the front door in a hall way. Such a deviceE-

Papercould also be connected wirelessly allowing remote or automatic updates without human

intervention. Such a product will have a low physical and energy footprint compared to older

technology. At present (Q4 2009) no such product is available on the market despite the

technology already existing to Manufacture it. Unlike digital photo frames, digital information

boards couldrun acceptably with greyscale epaper.

Displays embedded in smart cards

Flexible display cards enable financial payment cardholders to generate aone time

password to reduce online banking and transaction fraud. Electronic paper could offer a flat and

thin alternative to existing key fob tokens for data security. The world’s first ISO compliant

smart cards with an embedded display was developed by Innovative Card Technologies,

www.incard.com and nCryptone in 2005. The cards used display technology from

www.sipex.com and was manufactured by Nagra ID, www.nagraid.com.E-Paper

Status displays

Some devices, likeUSb flash drive, have used electronic paper to display status

information, such as available storage space.

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Comparison of e-paper & LCD

Electronic ink display Liquid Crystal Displays

Wide viewing angle Best image only from one

position

Black on paper white Gray on gray

Readable in sunlight Can be difficult to see

Holds image without power

drain

Required power to hold images

Plastic or glass Glass only

Light Weight Power supply and glass make

LCDs relatively heavy

Thin (~1 mm) Thick (~7 mm)

Advantages

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They are persistent without power, drawing current only when they change, which means low

power consumption therefore batteries can be smaller and last longer.

An electronic ink display module is thinner, lighter weight, and more robust than conventional

LCD's.

Electronic Paper is highly flexible and it is able to be twisted or bended into different

curvatures. The Electronic Paper can be applied to different shapes of products, without being

limited to being bonded to flat display panels.

The manufacturing process is carried out using a roll- to-roll method, similar to printing paper,

by injecting dielectric fluid and charged particles into the layer of capsules, and then sealing the

top layer. The production is performed continuously at high speed.

Conventional displays have a number of disadvantages in this application. They may be too

expensive, too power consuming, or too hard to see when affixed to a shelf. On the other hand, e-

paper can produce small, battery-operated, flexible displays.

E-paper’s potential flexibility can also be an advantage when affixing displays to shelves.

Conversely, e-paper’s current limitation-poor color capability-is not much of a disadvantage in

this context. Color is not a requirement; monochrome displays would be quite capable of

displaying most pricing or product information. When improved color is developed, it would

then increase the advertising capabilities of such displays.

1. Readable

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E-Paper are easily readable even in direct sunlight because E-Paper displays reflect light

like ordinary paper. 

An E-paper display has the appearance of ordinary ink on paper, for it reflects light like ordinary

paper. Unlike conventional LCD displays, which emit lights, the E-paper display is highly

readable, not only indoors but also in direct sunlight, and the image on it is clear and

modest, without flickering, and the viewing angle is near 180°. Therefore, it’s very suitable for

reading.

E-paper vs. paper

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Compared to a traditional LCD display (LEFT), the E-paper display (RIGHT) is easily readable in sunlight.

The E-paper display has higher contrast ratio, reflectance and viewing angle than TN LCDs.

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2. Rugged

E-Paper displays are rugged... meaning they are flexible, lightweight, durable and reliable.

Compared to LCD displays, the E-paper displays have obvious advantage in thickness and

weight, and due to the polymer film based structure, it's flexible in shape and size. What's more,

E-paper is durable and reliable. The flexibility feature of E-paper enables its various

applications, even for some extreme requirements that other types of display technology cannot

meet. 

Based on the ultra-thin and flexible feature, the E-paper can be used on the smart card as a display showing balance and transaction record information.

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3. Green

If we could replace all paper newspapers with E-Newspapers tomorrow, it would save 95

million trees which could remove 98 million tons of greenhouse gas each year.

The E-paper display is energy efficient due to two advantages it has.Frstly, it doesn't use a back

light which consume most power, but rather, it mimics the picture by reflecting ambient light.

Secondly, it's bi-stable, which means no power is needed to hold a static picture. This makes the

E-paper display consume much less power than conventional displays, such as LCD displays.

We know that less power consumption means longer lasting battery life. Therefore, E-paper

displays are highly suitable for the products which are limited to the size or require extreme

battery condition.

The bistable E-paper display

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The power consumption of E-paper is so low that it can be powered by a solar cell battery.

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Disadvantages

1. Very low refresh rate: A notable disadvantage of electrophoretic display and electronic ink

display is that it has very low refresh rate when compared to LCD IPS technology and AMOLED

display technology this is also true for other electronic paper display technologies.

A low refresh rate is disadvantageous because it prevents manufacturers for using this display

technology in electronic devices that have high degree of user interactivity. Note that user

interactivity is high in devices such as smartphones and tablet computers.

2. Ghosting effect: Electrophoretic display and electronic ink display are prone to ghosting

effect. A shadow of an image may be visible after refreshing parts of the screen. This ghosting

effect is due to the low refresh rate and the fact that the display technology works by moving

charged pigment particles. Some particles end up stuck in the visible surface of a microcapsule.

3. High market competition: Another disadvantage of electrophoretic display and electronic ink

display is that it competes with existing display technologies that have become industry

standards. Note that IPS displays and AMOLED displays have become very popular in

smartphones and tablet computers, as well as in large screens such as televisions and computer

monitors. Advancements in IPS and AMOLED display technologies have addressed issues

concerning power consumption or energy efficiency, display longevity, and pixel density

capacity, among others.

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4. Still needs backlighting: One of the advantages of reflective displays is their reliance on

ambient light. This means less power consumption form backlighting. However, this advantage

can also be a disadvantage for electrophoretic display and electronic ink display.

Devices that use this display technology still need some light source such as backlighting in

order to be usable when in the dark. Note that some electronic readers are actually unreadable

when in the dark—just like books or newspapers.

Like all technologies, E-paper has its flaws that make it inaccurate to use. Organizations face

many disadvantages with e-paper and e-paper technologies. Publishing departments may have a

bad time adapting to this new technology because it is still complex to use. Organizations still

have manufacturing costs that were higher than expected, and some companies had trouble

programming signs in their stores.

Hence, companies are still reluctant to use this technology because it is more complex than paper

and it is more expensive to use. Also, e-paper is still less attractive to technologies such as LED

or LCD, because it still unable to reproduce animations and it is difficult to read when there’s no

light.

Thus, unless the room is not bright enough, employees in an organization will have a very hard

time reading the e-paper. The biggest challenge a company faces with e-paper and its sister

technologies is piracy.

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Screenshots

(Fig1) Electrowetting Display

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(Fig2) Electrophoretic display & Gyricon

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Fig (3) Back Plane Layout

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Fig (4) Rubber Stamped Plastic Circuitry for Electronic Paper

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Conclusion

Electronic ink is not intended to diminish or do away with traditional displays. Instead

electronic ink will initially co-exist with traditional paper and other display technologies. In the

long run, electronic ink may have a multibillion-dollar impact on the publishing industry.

Ultimately electronic ink will permit almost any surface to become a display, bringing

information out of the confines of traditional devices and into the world around us.

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8 References

www.google.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_paper

http://spectrum.ieee.org/consumer-electronics/portable-devices/lighter-brighter-displays

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