New e-paper type created
Electronic paper, superior predecessors in contrast, resolution and speed, created by a group of scientists under the leadership of Professor Jason Heikenfeld ( Jason Heikenfeld ) from the University of Cincinnati. To achieve outstanding parameters, the authors of the development had to actually come up with a new principle for the operation of electronic paper.
Recall that the bulk of electronic books (including the first electronic newspaper and the electronic cover of a printed magazine) use “classic” electronic paper. It is based on a myriad of black and white microparticles floating up to the surface and sinking in the thickness of the screen under the influence of a varying electrical charge.
But this is not the only e-paper technology. For example, the first in the world color electronic book “Flepia” , which appeared in March of this year, uses a different principle of image formation - based on reflective liquid crystals (Reflex LCD). And in December last year, a group of scientists from Canada and Britain created a display based on controlled synthetic opal, which instantly changes color in almost the entire visible spectrum. So the search for the ideal does not stop.
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All these developments are united by one thing - unusual screens work in reflected light, as well as “acting” and a sheet of ordinary paper with letters and drawings. That is why these systems are called electronic paper. The energy consumption of such devices is orders of magnitude lower than the classic LCD and other types of screens, and the readability of electronic paper only improves as ambient light increases (this is true on the street), as opposed to the usual “luminous” displays that fade when exposed to external illumination.
So Jason and his colleagues "built" a new type of electronic paper. Each pixel of it is a hollow hermetic hexagonal cell, which is based on an aluminum plate (it reflects light). And in the center of the cell - tiny polymer wells filled with carbon ink (black and white version). Above the same construction covers a thin-film transparent electrode of indium oxide tin.
The voltage applied to the electrode and the substrate causes the ink to instantly flow out of the well and fill the entire cell. After removing the tension, the ink is immediately collected back into the well. And since the reservoir occupies about 5% of the total visible area, in the "collapsed" state, the ink is almost invisible.
To obtain color pixels, the authors of the project decided to apply light filters superimposed over the cells.
The width of one point in the new display was 100 micrometers, and the screen resolution was 300 dpi. This, according to Heikenfeld, is larger than most e-book models on the market.
But the main advantage of new items in the other. New paper reflects 55% of the incident light, while serial e-books - 35-40%. Moreover, Jason assures, the new technology can be improved by raising the degree of reflection of light to 60%, and then higher (here it is the color version of the display that is meant). And this is already comparable to ordinary white paper: it has 85% of reflection, which, we note, for the new paper in black and white is no longer a problem. This means that such paper with “running” inks will be much closer in perception to printed products than all previous versions.
The second colossal advantage of the novelty is the time for switching pixels between the black and white states. It is only one millisecond, which is even faster than good LCD screens, and much better than traditional e-books (there are tens and hundreds of milliseconds). Therefore, the new paper is much better suited for video playback.
Finally, the development of American scientists is very thin and capable of bending.
For the further development of technology, specialists from the University of Cincinnati have created a startup Gamma Dynamics . In addition, the Dutch company Polymer Vision (known to us from the world's first e-book with a folding screen) and the American pigment supplier Sun Chemical have joined forces to commercialize the development of Heikenfeld, details of which can be found in the article by scientists in Nature Photonics.
membrana.ru via Technology Review
In the Technology Review article, you can also watch a video illustrating the operation of a new type of electronic paper.
Recall that the bulk of electronic books (including the first electronic newspaper and the electronic cover of a printed magazine) use “classic” electronic paper. It is based on a myriad of black and white microparticles floating up to the surface and sinking in the thickness of the screen under the influence of a varying electrical charge.
But this is not the only e-paper technology. For example, the first in the world color electronic book “Flepia” , which appeared in March of this year, uses a different principle of image formation - based on reflective liquid crystals (Reflex LCD). And in December last year, a group of scientists from Canada and Britain created a display based on controlled synthetic opal, which instantly changes color in almost the entire visible spectrum. So the search for the ideal does not stop.
')
All these developments are united by one thing - unusual screens work in reflected light, as well as “acting” and a sheet of ordinary paper with letters and drawings. That is why these systems are called electronic paper. The energy consumption of such devices is orders of magnitude lower than the classic LCD and other types of screens, and the readability of electronic paper only improves as ambient light increases (this is true on the street), as opposed to the usual “luminous” displays that fade when exposed to external illumination.
So Jason and his colleagues "built" a new type of electronic paper. Each pixel of it is a hollow hermetic hexagonal cell, which is based on an aluminum plate (it reflects light). And in the center of the cell - tiny polymer wells filled with carbon ink (black and white version). Above the same construction covers a thin-film transparent electrode of indium oxide tin.
The voltage applied to the electrode and the substrate causes the ink to instantly flow out of the well and fill the entire cell. After removing the tension, the ink is immediately collected back into the well. And since the reservoir occupies about 5% of the total visible area, in the "collapsed" state, the ink is almost invisible.
To obtain color pixels, the authors of the project decided to apply light filters superimposed over the cells.
The width of one point in the new display was 100 micrometers, and the screen resolution was 300 dpi. This, according to Heikenfeld, is larger than most e-book models on the market.
But the main advantage of new items in the other. New paper reflects 55% of the incident light, while serial e-books - 35-40%. Moreover, Jason assures, the new technology can be improved by raising the degree of reflection of light to 60%, and then higher (here it is the color version of the display that is meant). And this is already comparable to ordinary white paper: it has 85% of reflection, which, we note, for the new paper in black and white is no longer a problem. This means that such paper with “running” inks will be much closer in perception to printed products than all previous versions.
The second colossal advantage of the novelty is the time for switching pixels between the black and white states. It is only one millisecond, which is even faster than good LCD screens, and much better than traditional e-books (there are tens and hundreds of milliseconds). Therefore, the new paper is much better suited for video playback.
Finally, the development of American scientists is very thin and capable of bending.
For the further development of technology, specialists from the University of Cincinnati have created a startup Gamma Dynamics . In addition, the Dutch company Polymer Vision (known to us from the world's first e-book with a folding screen) and the American pigment supplier Sun Chemical have joined forces to commercialize the development of Heikenfeld, details of which can be found in the article by scientists in Nature Photonics.
membrana.ru via Technology Review
In the Technology Review article, you can also watch a video illustrating the operation of a new type of electronic paper.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/58585/
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