E-Paper News - Page 5

E Ink Holdings announced a partnership with Sharp Display Technology Corporation (SDTC) to adopt SDTC’s indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO*2) backplanes for ePaper modules using in eReader and eNote products.

E Ink and Sharp have been working together for two years to bring oxide TFTs for ePaper displays into the market. The two companies will demonstrate the first next-gen IGZO ePaper displays at CEATEC 2022 (October 18) - a 8" 300 PPI display that offers a refresh time of 0.35 seconds (monochrome) / 0.5-1.5 seconds (color).

E Ink announced that its 6.8-inch and 2.9-inch ePaper modules have been verified by the British Standards Institution (BSI), as being in compliance with the ISO 14067:2018 standard. The carbon footprint of every 6.8 inch ePaper module is 3.30 kg CO₂; every 2.9 inch ePaper module is 0.59 kg CO₂.

E Ink says that these two displays are its most commonly used modules. The verification focused on the GHG emissions during the material receiving and manufacturing stages and throughout the life cycle of the products. The carbon footprint data investigation includes the raw material production, materials transportation and product manufacturing of the ePaper module assembly based on the functions of each site within the Company, including Massachusetts site in North America, and Hsinchu, Linkou and Yangzhou sites in Asia.

E Ink Holdings announced that it plans to invest around $110 million USD to expand the capacity of its Taoyuan (Taiwan) production line, and around $480,000 in its Yangzhou (China) facility. These projects will be finished by the end of 2024.

The company is still fully booked and cannot satisfy all the demand for its displays. The company does report, however, that demand for consumer electronics, including e-readers and e-notebooks is lower than what it foreseen. In fact the company estimates that shipments of displays for e-Readers will be 10% lower than what the company estimated for 2022, but still higher than the shipments in 2021.

US airline Alaska Airlines launched a new smart baggage tag system, that uses E Ink labels. The company, which says it is the first in the US to adopt the technology, will offer 2,500 such tags for its frequent flyers, at no cost.

The new tags will allow users to avoid using printed bag tags, and the activation of the device can be done using a smartphone 24 hours before the flight. This means that almost the whole check-in process can be performed at home.

Electrowetting display developer Etulipa announced that it has started a field trial of its full-color display. The company is carrying out its evaluation in two locations - at the High Tech Campus Eindhoven and in Brookings, SD USA together with signage developer Daktronics.

Etulipa says that its displays consume only 7 Watts per sqm and offer zero light pollution (it is a reflective display). The company's latest displays are based on its patented 2nd-Gen EWD technology.

Remarkable, the company behind the reMarkable 10.3" 1872 x 1404 E Ink tablet says that it has sold over 1 million devices, generating over $300 million in revenue in 2021 (with an operating profit of $31 million).

reMarkable says it closed a new financing round, with a valuation of $1 billion. The company did not disclose more about the funding round - beyond saying that they have sold a minority stake for several international investors.

Amazon decided to pull out of the Chinese e-reader market. The company will stop offering Kindle devices in China by the end of June 2023, and will also stop operating its eBook stores in China.

Customers in China will be able to download the Kindle app until June 2024, and of the devices themselves will continue to operate with the books stored on them.