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:

A few monthד ago Art Technology released a new range of E Ink watches, called Phosphor watches. Now they have released a new model (black case Digital Hour), and have kindly send us one for review. The watch is now available for 190$.

The watch

The Digital Hour watch is a curved, light-weight watch. It's not thin, though, which is surprising because the display itself is very thin (more on this later, but it's under 400 micron thick!). The watch functions are pretty basic: you can view the time (in two modes: analog/digital combined, and just digital), the date, and there's also an alarm you can setup. The watch is always in 12-hours mode (no military time).

There are two buttons: one is used to flip between the 4 display modes (analog/digital time, digital time, date and alarm setup). The other button is used to flip the display between white on black or black on white. The two buttons are also used to setup the watch. You can see the analog/digital mode above, and here are the other 3 modes (from left to right: digital time, date and alarm). You can tell it's the date mode because of the small icon on the top-left.

PVI's chairman says that they plan to release color and flexible E Ink displays. They are also working on touch-enabled E Inks, and ones that support video. They predict that the market share of touch-capable e-readers will increase sharply in 2010. PVI wants to place the touch sensors behind the display, so image quality will be better.

PVI also reveals that E Ink's response time has increased, to the point where animation can be played.

Via Digitimes

PVI will triple its E Ink film and back-end modules capacity by the end of 2010 (in a $1.5 million investment). Their chairman says that global e-reader sales may exceed 10 million in 2010. Over 50 new vendors are expected to launch e-readers this year.

Via E-Reader-Info

IntertechPira and +plasticElectronics have announced an upcoming webinar (18 of February) called "e-readers and e-paper: technology and applications" that will discuss the evolution of e-paper for the e-reader market. The webinar will be given by Ian French, a principal scientist at Prime View International (PVI). 

The webinar will provide an overview of e-readers to date, technology advances in three key areas: flexibility, color and video and will also discuss future applications for e-paper displays.

It seems that Bridestone's e-paper technologies are finally coming to the market: Taiwan's Delta plans to launch 2 e-readers with their e-paper displays in 2Q 2010. One will have a 13.1" color display, the other 8.1" monochrome. Both will be touch enabled.

Via E-Reader-Info

Liquavista say that TI will include support for their displays in an OMAP-based e-reader development platform. Liquavista are working on both monochrome and color displays.

TI is also working with E Ink to include support and special software for E Ink displays in their platforms.

LG Display is showing a new 19" flexible E Ink prototype - that's almost as big as an A3-sized newpaper. It is only 0.3mm thin and weights only 130 grams. 

The display uses metal foil, and so it can recover its original shape after being bent. 

Via Digitimes