One Step Closer to E-Ink Devices

A collaborative partnership between E Ink Corporation (Cambridge, MA), TOPPAN Printing Co. (Tokyo) and Philips Electronics (Netherlands) may place devices with color e-ink displays in the hands of consumers by 2004. At the Society for Information Display Symposium, Seminar and Exhibition in Boston in June, the "world's first high-resolution, active-matrix color display" was exhibited. The display measured 5" diagonal, had a resolution of 80 ppi (pixels per inch) and was capable of displaying 4,096 colors. The low-power displays are a combination of three technologies; one from each of the three collaborative corporate partners. TOPPAN supplies the color filter array, while Philips provides the active matrix backplane. E Ink's contribution is the electronic ink technology which can deliver digitally rendered text and images on paper-thin displays.

Electronic ink is essentially a film embedded with capsules. Within the capsules are electrically-charged colored microcapsules. As electrical fields are applied to the film, the microcapsules move either towards the surface of the film (and are displayed) or move away from the surface (and are not seen). For a more in-depth explanation, see "What is Electronic Ink?" Since energy is required only to arrange the microcapsules and not to sustain them in their position, it is estimated that over 10,000 pages can be displayed with the power of just 2 AA batteries. And, unlike LCDs, the e-ink displays can be viewed from any angle without loss of color or contrast.

E-ink displays are expected in 2004 on portable devices, such as PDAs, cell phones and ebook devices. Monochrome displays can be expected next year on some Philips portable devices.