Holly G. Gates

12.1: 12.1′ SVGA Microencapsulated Electrophoretic Active Matrix Display for Information Appliances

We describe the successful construction of a 12.1″ 800×600 microencapsulated electrophoretic active matrix display incorporating an a-Si thin film transistor backplane. The display exhibits a print-on-paper-like appearance (high reflectance, high contrast ratio and wide viewing angle) and grayscale at 83 DPI, and demonstrates the materials compatibility with commercial a-Si TFT LCD backplanes.

13.2: Development of Active Matrix Electronic Ink Displays for Handheld Devices

Interest in the use of electrophoretic displays for smart handheld applications has grown tremendously over the past few years. Since the launch of the Philips and E Ink joint development effort in February 2001, material parameters, TFT backplane, electronic hard- and software and modulisation skills have been developed to make this promising display concept into a real product and to build working commercial prototypes.

10.2: Towards Video-rate Microencapsulated Dual-Particle Electrophoretic Displays

Present electrophoretic image displays (EPIDs) suitable for electronic reader applications have typical response times of several hundred milliseconds. In this paper, we describe a new EPID with significantly faster response. This ink has good bistability, a white state reflectivity of ∼40%, a contrast ratio of 12:1 at saturation, and is capable of being driven with image-to-image transition times of 30ms at 15v (CR>7).

31.2: A5 Sized Electronic Paper Display for Document Viewing

A new active matrix electronic paper display (EPD) prototype targeting medium format document viewing applications has been developed using electrophoretic technology manufactured by E Ink Corporation. The prototype panel represents an unprecedented step upward in absolute resolution and total viewable area over commercially available products, while also introducing a novel controller architecture for image stable displays. 1. Overview The past several years have born witness to a steady advancement in the capabilities and performance of electrophoretic displays. Resolutions have grown from QVGA to SVGA [3], image update time has decreased, and final image quality has improved. E Ink has previously demonstrated the largest active matrix electrophoretic display in terms of diagonal size [4]. While the display presented here is approximately 30% smaller in terms of area, it represents an 85% increase in terms of absolute number of pixels and is believed to be the world’s highest total pixel count electrophoretic paper display. Given these improvements, electronic paper displays (EPD) have emerged as an ideal imaging technology for electronic reading applications. However, the aspect ratios and diagonal sizes typical in the display industry are not necessarily best suited for viewing print content. This panel is purpose-built for reader applications, and adopts a common paper size for print compatibility. Most bi-stable or multi-stable imaging technologies differ from standard LCDs in the data and logic level processing required to perform a display update. Since the display only needs to be driven when a change in state is desired, some system is needed first to detect on a per pixel level when a change is indeed requested and second to effect this change in an efficient and expeditious manner. Several approaches exist to building this system. One approach, employed in conjunction with this new panel, is to utilize as much as possible the LCD related hardware and interfaces already in place on many host platforms. For evaluation and development of this panel and controller, a host system was constructed based on a system on chip processor commonly used for portable products. A Linux operating system was chosen as typical of the environment available in the target products. This choice also allowed for straightforward driver software and applications prototyping. A block diagram of the complete A5 display system described is shown in Figure 1. 2. Application Specific Display Requirements Since the products targeted by this display are chiefly concerned with viewing content traditionally conveyed by print on paper, the dimensions of the active area were closely matched to A5 ISO paper size. Breaking away from the confines of the popular industry 4:3 aspect ratio resulted in a display markedly better A5 Panel Xscale Host Bluetooth MMC Im pu ls e D at a Display Controller Im ag e D at a

Development of active‐matrix electronic‐ink displays for handheld devices

Interest in the use of electrophoretic displays for smart handheld applications has grown tremendously over the past few years. Since the launch of the Philips and E Ink joint development effort in February 2001, material parameters, TFT backplane, electronic hardware and software and modulization skills have been developed to make this promising display concept into a real product. The first commercial launch of active-matrix electronic-ink display modules is planned for mid 2004.

53.2: Power Consumption of micro‐encapsulated Display for Smart Handheld Applications

A detailed investigation of power consumption of microencapsulated electrophoretic (“electronic ink”) displays for smart handheld applications has been made. It is shown that the most of the power loss arises from driving the source lines. Since power is consumed only when pixels change state, typical power consumption with the display being constantly updated is only around 5-20% of the maximum value. Furthermore, under typical use, the display update duty cycle will be less than 1%, with a corresponding hundred-fold reduction in power consumption For example, an SVGA e-book is expected to consume as little as 1.5 mW. Thus, while the maximum power consumption for an electronic ink matrix display is comparable to that for reflective AMLCDs, the actual operating power will in most cases be lower by at least one to two orders of magnitude.

62.1: Invited Paper: System Integration of Electronic Paper Displays

E Inks microencapsulated electrophoretic imaging film is the basis for a new class of electronic paper displays (EPDs), with valuable attributes like ultra-low power consumption, flexibility and excellent readability under a variety of lighting conditions. We will show how a variety of supporting components, such as IC drivers, a dedicated timing controller, software display drivers, touch screen and frontlight can be combined together to incorporate an EPD into a fully functional consumer product.