E Ink is the leading e-paper (or electronic paper) technology. E-Paper can make thin, efficient and flexible displays. E-paper displays are used today in many products such as e-readers, mobile phones and portable drives.

This site is dedicated to E Ink technology. For news and information on E-Readers, please visit our sister-site E-Reader-Info.com.

Recent E Ink news:

Delta Electronics will use Allied Material Technology (AMTC)'s 3.5" color-filter production line to produce e-paper panels. Delta decided not to build their own production line to save costs. They might lease the production line, or buy it.

Delta is using Bridgestone's technology to make the e-paper panels, and will also launch thier own e-reader in 3Q 2010. In the future they also plan to launch color e-paper displays.

Via Digitimes

Pixel Qi will offer DIY kits towards the end of Q2. Yeah, you'll be able to turn your laptop/netbook display into a Pixel Qi display yourself! They say it's rather easy: "It’s only slightly more difficult than changing a lightbuld: it’s basically 6 screws, pulling off a bezel, unconnecting the old screen and plugging this one in. That’s it. It’s a 5 minute operation".

I'm guessing that these will be 10" displays, so it'll only fit in small laptops... but maybe these are better as e-readers anyway.

Read more at Pixel Qi's CEO blog where she tells us a beautiful story about a laptop-hospital in Nigeria run by a 11 years old girl. We have talked to Mary Lou Jespen a few days ago, discussing Pixel's QI displays.

Sri Peruvemba from E Ink has talked to PC Magazine, and he gives some very interesting information. He expects color E Ink to arrive soon, and devices based on this technology would ship in the beginning of 2011. This color will be more like the color you would see in a newspaper, and not like an LCD display. We can expect more on this from E Ink at the SID show in May.

Sri also reveals that they are working on much-faster E Ink displays, but it can take around 2-3 years for such technology to show up in shipping products...

E Ink's CEO, Russell Wilcox has resigned from the company. PVI's CEO will take over as E Ink manager. Resull co-founded E Ink back in 1997 - and stayed with the company for over 13 years.

Rusell reveals that E Ink is expanding - and plans to hire 100 manufacturing workers in the South Hadley, and 50 scientists and engineers in Cambridge, US.

Via Boston.com

Western Digital has released a new range of external Hard Disks that come with small 12-character E Ink displays. The My Passport Studio offer FireWire 800 interface and 256-bit H/W based encryption and come preformatted for Mac computers. They come in 320GB, 500GB and 640GB sizes, and are ready to pre-order now for $119.99, $139.99 and $159.99.

This is actually WD's second HD series to use such displays.

Freescale announced today a new processor called i.MX508 targeted for e-readers. The processor is based on an ARM A8 core and includes an E Ink controller. Freescale says that the chip is fast (800Mhz), efficient and cheap (less than $10 in large volumes). In fact they say that this chip can enable $150 e-readers.

The new chip is faster than Freescale's previous e-reader chips (used in the Amazon Kindle and Sony's Readers, for example) which can result in faster page refresh and can enable new features. As the chip includes an E Ink controller, USB and NAND memory it can help reduce the price of the final product.

Interestingly, the chip includes a special e-reader power mode, in which it can turn-off when users are reading a page to save power, and only operate at full-speed when users want to turn a page or perform an operation. 

The i.MX508 is expected to sample in 3Q 2010, and freescale (together with E Ink) are offering a dev-platform (called SABRE) which costs $1995 and is available now.

Via E-Reader-Info