What is E-paper?

E-paper, also known as Electronic Paper, is a display technology that has identical characteristics as a regular paper. For example, it is thin, light, bendable, etc. Furthermore, it is reusable and portable. In addition, E-paper is environmental friendly. It is resource saving and consumes very little electricity when changing the images. Since many people are concerned about today's environment, this is ideally a great product since it does not require materials such as trees. It does not require electricity to have a continuous display since it is all based on memory functions. The images and texts can be electronically changed or written over within seconds and it is always up to date. The low power consumption allows it to be long lasting without recharging batteries. Furthermore, its thin and light characteristics allow it to be portable everywhere you go and it is more convenient than carrying a laptop.

E-paper is relatively cheap, but not as cheap as traditional paper, and it is affordable by many people. The flexibility of E-paper makes it durable. The first generation of E-paper uses glass backplanes such as LCD's. A LCD glass can easily break if dropped on the floor. The second generation of E-papers are all made with high flexibility which prevents it from easily breaking. Most importantly, E-paper improves readability. The display uses many pixels and has a very high resolution to bring stable images. It provides reflective light display to generate less eye strain and it can be viewed in every angle without seeing reflection of yourself or the room. E-paper is made to be more comfortable for the human eye. Furthermore, E-paper comes in many difference sizes for different purposes. For example, there are larger e-paper available for the purpose of advertisement.

Here is a video of the comparison between LCDs and E-paper:

How does it work?

The technology that is being used for E-paper is called Electrophoretic Display. It contains some negatively charged electronic ink, also called e-ink, between two electrodes. The electrode charges the ink and repels it to appear on the surface turning the E-paper on and off. Electrochromic Display is similar to Electrophoretic except it contains color ink. With this technology, it allows the E-paper to consume less energy and last longer.

Another method is the Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) which is an LED that contains some organic compounds that produces light when given a small amount of power. Its image quality is better than LCD display however its life span is much shorter.

As of now, E-paper is only available in black and white. Starting from 2009, Fujitsu will introduce a more high performance and colorful display into the market. Many companies have applied e-paper and e-ink into their own products. For example, Motorola F3 uses e-paper display instead of the usual LCD screen, however, it is only available in black and white. Also, Amazon has began producing Amazon Kindle. Amazon Kindle is an E-book that has E-paper display. Imagine having to read an entire book in a thin layer device.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_paper
http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~frk/frank/da/hci/tutorial%20-%20What%20is%20e%20paper.pdf
http://www.fujitsu.com/global/news/pr/archives/month/2005/20050713-01.html