E-paper that enables large screen displays with multi-tiling

NEC LCD Technologies has successfully developed A3 and A4 sized electronic paper using the microcapsule electrophoretic system.

Developed by E Ink Corporation (USA), the electrophoretics system contains white pigment particles electrified with positive electrodes, and black pigment particles electrified with negative electrodes. Each pigment particle is contained in a clear microcapsule that is moved by applying voltage, which thereby creates a visible display. The prototype uses E Ink's "Vizplex Imaging Film."

The new e-paper modules leverage NEC LCD Technologies and advancements with TFT active matrix to secure 16 step grayscale, white reflectivity of 43% and a contrast ratio of 10:1 - giving higher visibility and gradation when compared to general newspapers.

By combining up to eight modules, which incorporate the company's original multi-tiling controller, the e-paper modules can be used to form large screen displays. The A3 e-paper module is composed of especially narrow frames, with two sides measuring just 1mm, which enables the creation of large screens that feature effective multi-tiling.

The displays reduce strain on the eyes by utilizing reflected light and paper which enables wide viewing angles and high visibility under direct sunlight. Power is kept to a minimum by using reduced electricity when displaying information and only a limited amount of energy is required to perform screen rewriting.

The A3 and A4 modules have drawn particular attention due to consumer's existing daily use of similarly sized paper - the slim light-weight design makes it an ideal portable electronic device for the avid newspaper reader and business manager.

The company say they will continue to promote the research and development of e-paper modules and will aim for large-scale production of new applications that address a wide range of uses spanning many different fields.

New Chip from Epson promises new capabilities for e-ink displays

Epson and its subsidiary, Epson Electronics America, have joined hands with E Ink, a developer of Electronic Paper Display (EPD) technology, to jointly develop display controller IC. This new controller has been designed to bring new capabilities for E Ink's Vizplex-enabled electronic paper displays.

EPD low-power consumption screen technology is driving new mobile applications like eBooks, eNewspapers, tablet PCs, laptop secondary displays, eNotebooks, and eDictionaries.

The new EPD controller IC (part number S1D13521B) combines technologies from both Epson and E Ink. It will be offered in production quantities by Epson and as part of E Ink's upcoming AM300 Broadsheet prototype kit.


It promises to speed up the user interface of EPDs via better navigation, drop down/popup menus, responsive cursors, and real-time keyboard entry. The controller enables the display to perform up to 16 tasks in parallel, and supports pen input devices for annotations and sketches.

E Ink claims future devices using this chip could offer a fast menu interface, simple animations, higher grayscale levels, and user input through typing and touch.

Samples of the Epson S1D13521B will be available in May 2008. Production quantities will be available in August 2008. Sample price is US $18.

E-Ink is also offering a Broadsheet AM300 prototype kit for engineers to develop next generation ePaper products. Compatible with different sizes of active matrix displays, it allows users to create functional, low profile product mock-ups.

The AM300 will be shipping in June. It can be pre-ordered at E Ink's website.


Via CXOtoday Staff

Epson and E Ink Announce Breakthrough Controller IC for Electronic Paper Displays

New chip enables faster navigation, multi-tasking, and real-time pen/keyboard input.

Seiko Epson Corporation ("Epson"), a global supplier of semiconductor solutions, its subsidiary Epson Electronics America Inc., and E Ink Corporation, the leading developer and marketer of electronic paper display (EPD) technology, today announced a jointly developed display controller IC enabling new capabilities for E Ink’s Vizplex enabled electronic paper displays. EPD low-power consumption screen technology is driving an emerging class of new mobile applications, such as eBooks, eNewspapers, tablet PCs, laptop secondary displays, eNotebooks, and eDictionaries.

The new EPD controller IC (part number S1D13521B) was developed by combining technologies from both Epson and E Ink. It will be offered in production quantities by Epson and as part of E Ink’s upcoming AM300 Broadsheet prototype kit.


The Epson display controller will bring greater functionality to EPDs using E Ink technology by speeding up the user interface via seamless navigation, drop down/popup menus, responsive cursors and real-time keyboard entry. The controller enables the display to perform up to 16 tasks in parallel, and supports smooth and responsive pen input devices for annotations and sketches.

"Epson developed the powerful S1D13521 with E Ink to support new ePaper applications such as electronic newspapers, portable web browsers and industrial tablets" said Russ Wilcox, President and CEO of E Ink. "With the ability to address many screen regions simultaneously, future devices using this chip could offer a fast menu interface, simple animations, higher grayscale levels, and user input through typing and touch"

"Epson has, for many years, been offering various display controllers to the market. With this new controller IC, we are very excited to develop the emerging EPD display market together with E Ink. This new product development reflects our shared commitment to developing electronic solutions that help to conserve energy and natural resources and are friendly to the environment" said Ryuhei Miyagawa, Division Manager for Epson’s Semiconductor Operations Division.

Epson’s controller IC’s functionality is fully enabled when integrated into a display solution utilizing a host controller, tuned waveforms, and E Ink’s Vizplex-enabled active matrix electrophoretic displays. Its ability to perform regional updates contributes to a more responsive screen for both input and output usage. Samples of the Epson S1D13521B will be available in May 2008. Production quantities will be available in August 2008. Sample price is $18.

The Broadsheet AM300 prototype kit being offered by E Ink is the fastest way to start working with E Ink technology using the Epson EPD controller. The Broadsheet kit will enable engineers to rapidly prototype and develop next generation ePaper products. Compatible with 5-in., 6-in., 8-in., and 9.7-in. active matrix displays, the kit allows users to quickly create functional, low-profile product mock-ups using the kit’s modular design. The AM300 will be shipping in June and is available online at www.eink.com for pre-order.

E Ink Raises $16 Million Funding

E Ink Corp., a Cambridge, Mass.-based provider of electronic paper display technologies, has raised $16 million in "Series B" venture funding, according to a regulatory filing. The company has now raised over $130 million in total VC funding since its 1997 inception.

Shareholders include FA Technology Ventures, Intel Capital, Motorola, Special Situations Funds, Hearst Communications and Toppan Printing Co.

Via Pehub

Amazon.com will unveil the Kindle in october

The New York Times reported that in October, the online retailer Amazon.com will unveil the Kindle, an electronic book reader that has been the subject of industry speculation for a year, according to several people who have tried the device and are familiar with Amazon’s plans. The Kindle will be priced at $400 to $500 and will wirelessly connect to an e-book store on Amazon’s site.

That is a significant advance over older e-book devices, which must be connected to a computer to download books or articles.


Hopes for e-books began to revive last year with the introduction of the widely marketed Sony Reader. Sony will not say how many it has sold, but the Reader has apparently done well enough that Sony recently increased its advertising for the device in several major American cities.

“Digital readers are not a replacement for a print book; they are a replacement for a stack of print books,” said Ron Hawkins, vice president for portable reader systems at Sony. “That is where we see people, on the go, in the subway and in airports, with our device.”

Amazon has been showing the Kindle to book publishers for the last year and has delayed its introduction several times. Last fall, a photograph of the device, and some of its specifications, leaked onto the Web when the company filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission to get approval for its wireless modem, which will operate over a high-speed EVDO network.

Several people who have seen the Kindle say this is where the device’s central innovation lies — in its ability to download books and periodicals, and browse the Web, without connecting to a computer. They also say Amazon will pack some free offerings onto the device, like reference books, and offer customers a choice of subscriptions to feeds from major newspapers like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the French newspaper Le Monde.

The device also has a keyboard, so its users can take notes when reading or navigate the Web to look something up. A scroll wheel and a progress indicator next to the main screen, will help users navigate Web pages and texts on the device.

People familiar with the Kindle also have a few complaints. The device has a Web browser, but using it is a poor experience, because the Kindle’s screen, also from E Ink, does not display animation or color.

Some also complain about the fact that Amazon is using a proprietary e-book format from Mobipocket, a French company that Amazon bought in 2005, instead of supporting the open e-book standard backed by most major publishers and high-tech companies like Adobe. That means owners of other digital book devices, like the Sony Reader, will not be able to use books purchased on Amazon.com.

Nevertheless, many publishing executives see Amazon’s entrance into the e-book world as a major test for the long-held notion that books and newspapers may one day be consumed on a digital device.

“This is not your grandfather’s e-book,” said one publishing executive who did not want to be named because Amazon makes its partners sign nondisclosure agreements. “If these guys can’t make it work, I see no hope.”

Remembering the first anouncements of Eink

I found this story at The NY Times, dated November 30, 2000. Interesting thing to look back and see how much the technology has grown since then:

Flexible Displays for Electronic Ink

By LISA GUERNSEY
Published: November 30, 2000

SCIENTISTS in Cambridge, Mass., have demonstrated what they say is the world's first flexible display using electronic ink, bringing engineers one step closer to creating a changeable display screen that is nearly as portable, lightweight and easy to read as paper.

''It is about the stiffness of a mouse pad,'' said Paul Drzaic, director of display technology for E Ink, a start-up company working on flexible display technology.

The prototype, which was unveiled last week and can be viewed at www.eink.com, looks about as thick as a mouse pad, too, mostly because of flexible padding added to prevent the prototype from being ripped accidentally,. But E Ink executives have said that the product could eventually be as thin as four sheets of paper.

The prototype was created as part of a joint project between E Ink, which was founded by physicists from the Media Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Lucent Technologies, which has created flexible plastic circuits. E Ink's core technology consists of an ink that responds to electric charges, enabling words or images to be displayed on a relatively thin screen without the need for a conventional cathode-ray tube monitor or liquid crystal display screen.

Until recently, the ink was applied to rigid boards because the technology relied on brittle silicon chips to regulate the electric charges. In fact, E Ink's first product, called Immedia, looks a lot like a billboard, several examples of which are hanging in retail shops to deliver changing messages to passers-by.

Now, with the help of Lucent's circuitry, the company is working to produce bendable displays that can respond to electronic signals and still be folded or rolled. Some technologists have envisioned that this technology could lead to something like an always up-to-date newspaper that displays information carried over the wireless Internet.

In addition to their flexibility, the plastic circuits designed by Lucent are relatively inexpensive, Dr. Drzaic said. While silicon chips require expensive fabrication factories, the plastic circuits are printed, or stamped, onto a plastic substrate, a technique that Lucent and E Ink say can be done en masse at a relatively low cost. The two companies are looking for a manufacturer to develop the technology.

The one drawback to the plastic chips, Dr. Drzaic said, is that they cannot handle as much current as silicon, which means that it is unlikely they could be used in anything as power-hungry as a personal computer any time soon.

''But,'' Dr. Drzaic said, ''the E Ink material does not need that much current.'' It merely responds to simple electric charges, instead of complex commands. ''In that sense,'' he said, ''plastic circuits and electronic ink are a perfect match.''

But silicon-based technology still plays a role. Electronic ink will always need traditional chips to handle the more complex tasks of taking orders from computers, said E Ink's chief executive, Jim Iuliano. He said he envisions the technology taking a hybrid form, like a book with a rigid spine attached to pages that are thin and flexible enough to roll up.

Mr. Iuliano said he has also heard from at least one watch manufacturer who is interested in using the flexible displays on the wristbands of high-tech watches.

''It's a natural for these kinds of applications,'' he said.

The paperless paper, an Editor and Publisher special

Here I transcript the text from the original story at http://www.editorsweblog.org/analysis//2007/04/part_1_the_paperless_paper.php

Well, the newspaper world could do with a glimpse of hope. And there it came: after all the signals of steady decline, at least in the industrialised world, digital paper finally offers a perspective for innovation and growth of the beleaguered sector. The digital paper technology combines the best of two worlds: the look and feel of the traditional paper and the versatility of the online editions (see 'E-Readers, Background'). The promise it offers is mind boggling: a newspaper era without newsprint, rotation presses and complicated distribution lines: all serious cost factors. The practice however is less convincing. The enabling e-ink technology is around for several years, but its application is still scarce and purely experimental. That is, until now.
How electronic reading panes are going to change the very nature of the business

With improved functionality of the gear and sophistication of the embedded software, we witness an array of initiatives across Europe and beyond. In a series of three contributions, a number of the most interesting e-reader projects are briefly described. Today a report about the landmark field test the Belgian financial paper De Tijd held last year. The next piece will describe a recently started joint initiative of five Dutch newspapers, and in a third contribution Roger Fidler, the American founding father of the electronic newspaper concept, will give his assessment of the digital paper revolution.

While virtually all newspapers were still ignorant of the digital paper arrival, the Belgian newspaper De Tijd, together with the Flemish research centre IBBT and Philips affiliate iRex Technologies (left), organised a three-month field test for 200 test readers of the paper. The group consisted mostly of well-educated males with a vibrant professional life style: the men on the move. This panel received a daily update of the paper and could select and read articles of choice on the Iliad e-reader iRex had provided and calibrated for the test. The project was intensely guided and researched. The test results give a good insight in the potential as well as the limitations of the e-reader technology at this stage.

It turned out that the test users associated the electronic reading experience with the classical paper rather than an online newspaper edition. Consequently, they were expecting the look and feel of the print product, but now projected onto their mobile e-reading pane. No particular interest in last minute updates, that is in this instance. As such, the device was evaluated as a complementary tool, the ideal travel companion. A pleasant add-on though; a good 45 per cent would consider purchasing the device if a regular journalistic service would be available.

Especially the portability and excellent readability under daylight conditions were highly rated, a noticeable difference with the performance of LCD displays of standard laptop computers. The test users were less satisfied with the rather slow page refreshment time and the general device lay-out; the first problem has been remedied meanwhile by the hardware provider but the latter (the ‘user-in-control’ feeling) requires further development.

Concerning the e-reader content, the proof readers made clear that the used PDF-copy of the print paper was not an appropriate format. The trusted click-through functionality worked well but additional personalisation options (archiving, electronic clipping for instance) and a search function would be welcome. These findings demonstrate that at the user side, the hybrid character of the technology is recognised and appreciated.


The De Tijd-project also looked into the various business models for e-readers. Four possible scenarios were identified, based on two main factors: the level of openness (open versus proprietary solutions) and nature of the content (one source or a variety of sources). The most simple scenario is the newspaper add-on: an e-reader service as an extension of the existing print edition. In the kiosk model, not one newspaper but also other edited volumes such as further papers, magazines, books etc. can be uploaded to the device. The iTunes model is based on the assumption that readers are ready for the purchase of single articles from a preferred provider and then make the collections (me-papers) themselves. The fourth scenario draws on the web model; the reader buys the device and then happily collects the content of Rollable screen E-Reader by Philips subsidiary Polyvision
his/her choice, free and/or paid-for.

These scenarios were assessed by several Flemish stakeholders and media specialists. The general opinion was a continued belief in the present power of editorially composed content and at the same time a growing understanding of the preference of especially younger generations for free and open web-enabled solutions in the times to come.

For more detail about the De Tijd project, contact nico.verplancke@ibbt.be

The Paperless Paper: E-Readers, Background

The often proclaimed mobile, personalised multimedia electronic paper is quickly maturing: the e-reader has arrived. Trend Watch even referred to the device as “literature’s iPod”. A pivotal role is played by the e-ink mounted devices companies like Sony (left), iRex Technologies and Fujitsu have launched. Electronic ink, originally a product from the Xerox labs, is based on the (electronic) activation of vast numbers of small moving ‘balls’, which, depending on their charge, turn black or white. That delivers a permanently refreshable, highly readable monochrome picture with a resolution of 170 pixels per inch. Once a picture is established, it doesn’t require energy.

The breed of e-readers using this technology has a striking resemblance with the print medium it is supposed to replace: excellent readability, certainly in daylight conditions, portability, and in the near future the same fold-up format (once the present solid back is replaced by a flexible plastic substrate) we love so much in the paper predecessor. So, e-ink based e-readers combine the once unbeatable qualities of the print product with the speed and immediacy of the internet. They more than deserve our curiosity and professional attention.


Next contribution in this series: the battle for appealing e-reader content.

Source: written by Jan Bierhoff, Director of the European Centre for Digital Communication

E Ink 2007 Global Mobile Awards winner

BARCELONA (3GSM World Congress) - February 16, 2007 - E Ink Corporation announced today that two products featuring its industry-leading electronic paper display technology received top honors at the GSM Association's 2007 Global Mobile Awards. The awards celebrate the highest achievements in the mobile communications industry. Polymer Vision received the Most Innovative Technology Award for its unique rollable display. Motorola won the Best Ultra Low Cost Handset Award for it MOTOFONE F3 GSM mobile phone.

"These global awards are the latest recognition of the cutting edge products now reaching consumers with E Ink's electronic paper displays," said Russ Wilcox, president and CEO of E Ink. "Our technology is bright, ultra low-power and paper-thin. This is a leap forward for anyone who wants to view information on a portable device."

Polymer Vision was honored for developing a GSM mobile phone with a foldable display, putting a big display into a small handset for the ultimate in convenience. Polymer Vision's displays are powered by E Ink's High Resolution electronic paper displays. The displays are bistable, meaning they only use power when an image is changed, so the Readius device can support the increased display size without sacrificing on long battery life. The foldable design of the Readius was achieved using Polymer Vision's plastic electronics technology and should appeal to both gadget and fashion lovers.

Motorola's MOTOFONE F3 re-establishes expectations over how a value-priced handset looks and feels and what it delivers. The handset's large, high contrast screen, powered by an E Ink Segmented Display is readable in direct sunlight, making it practical to use the phone outdoors. Additionally, the display is plastic, lightweight and ultra-low power, making it ideal for mobile and power sensitive applications by eliminating the weight and breakability of glass used in traditional LCD displays. This is the second award the MOTOFONE has received recently as it was named one of CNET's five coolest things at CES 2007 in January.

E Ink's technology has received many other accolades and awards. E Ink received a "Best of Small Tech Award" from Small Times because it, "successfully ushered the technology out of the lab and into real-world applications." E Ink also received a "Gold Display Component of the Year Award" from the Society for Information Display (SID), "for its substantial innovation in the science and technology of electronic paper display technology."