E-readers

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

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...

LiquaVista and TI are showing a new color e-reader demo. This prototype will soon be available as a system developer kit. Last month both companies announced the collaboration to support Liquavista's monochrome and color displays on TI's OMAP platform, it's good to see them move so fast.

Update: Liquavista are also working with Freescale and is showing a prototype based on the iMX5x platform. This one will also be offered as a system dev-kit soon:

Bookeen are a France-based e-reader maker, that currently offer two models that use E Ink displays (the Cybook Gen3, available now for 350$, and the Opus, available now for 215$). They are set to release a new one, the Orizon, which uses Sipix e-paper instead. We have posted an interview with their CEO over at E-Reader-Info, discussing this, and other e-reader issues. If you don't want to read the whole interview, here's the 3 reasons why they moved to Sipix:

1. AUO (Sipix) touchscreen is light year away from Sony resistive technology. You keep the optical quality of ePaper and you get an incredibly reactive touchscreen. For us touchscreen on such a large display is a must-have.
2. AUO has great developments and move incredibly fast.
3. They did not want to depend only on one screen manufacturer (PVI).

If you do want to read the whole interview, here's the link.

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