E Ink Holdings - Page 2

A year ago E Ink Holdings announced its Kaleido 3 color ePaper technology, which improved the color saturation by 30% compared the previous-generation Kaleido Plus (which was launched in March 2021). The Kaleido 3 display is based on E Ink's Print Color ePaper technology, where a color filter array (CFA) is used in conjunction with E Ink’s Carta black and white ink film.

Now EIH announced a new version of this display, called Kaleido 3 Outdoor, which is designed specifically for Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) advertising signage and is suitable for outdoor use in a wide temperature range (-16 to 65 degrees). The wide temperature range allows it to operate in extremely cold or hot areas without the need for expensive, high-energy-consuming heating or cooling devices, reducing additional power consumption.

E Ink Holdings announced a partnership with Sharp to bring ePaper posters to the market. Sharp and EIH has been collaborating for three years, and this is the first commercial step in that collaboration.

Sharp will release 42" monochrome E Ink displays (or e-poster as they call it) in the Japanese market in April 2023.

E Ink Holdings launched its latest segmented display technology, E Ink Prism 3, which features dynamic color changing capabilities. The new Prism 3 display offers product designers to choose from eight colors and combine them with patterns to create rich, dynamic surfaces.

The Prism 3 offers low power consumption (as with all E Ink bistable displays), and it is thin and durable. The Prism 3 offers designers the option of combining intricate patterns and colors onto the surface to enhance products.

Back in March 2022, E Ink announced that it has joined RE100, a global renewal energy initiative, and has committed to use 100% renewable energy by 2030. The company announced today that 20% of the energy it uses is generated from renewable sources (RE20) - the first display company to do so.

In December 2021 E Ink announced that it aims to achieve Net Zero Carbon Emissions by 2040.

E Ink Holdings says that it expects its revenue to increase slightly in this quarter as demand for electronic shelf labels is on the rise, but it raises concerns about a recession in the near future which could decrease demand for e-readers and e-notebooks.

EIH is targeting to enter the US ESL market via partners next year, and it estimates that it the market in the US is 10 times bigger compared to the EU market. The company is currently not changing its capital expenditure plans for 2022 and 2023, and it plans to increase production in its production lines in Hschincu, Taiwan (and build new lines) in 2022-2025. It has decided to delay its planned new line in Guanyin. 

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.

Respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims that Apple is testing E Ink color ePaper display, for two different future devices. Apple is especially interested in E Ink displays due to their efficient power consumption.

The first device that Apple is testing is a tablet-like devices, while the second is a foldable phone. The foldable phone, which will use a foldable OLED inside, will require a cover display - for which an E Ink display can be highly suitable

E Ink announced its latest color ePaper display, the Gallery 3, targeting applications in eReaders and Notes devices.

The Gallery 3 is based on E Ink's ACeP (Advanced Color ePaper) platform, where a full-color gamut is achieved through a four particle ink system: cyan, magenta, yellow and white, which allows a full color gamut at each pixel. Gallery 3 displays offers a faster refresh rate (350 ms for black and white, 500-1500 ms for color refresh), a substantial improvement over the first generation E Ink Gallery (which offers a black and white update in 2 seconds, and full-color in up to 10 seconds).