E-Paper Displays

1The Rise, and Fall, and Rise of Electronic Paper

Paul S. Drzaic¹, Bo‐Ru Yang², and Anne Chiang³

¹ Apple, Inc

² Professor, School of Electronics and Information Technology, State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Display Material and Technology, Sun Yat‐Sen University, Guangzhou, China

³ Principal, Chiang Consulting, Cupertino, CA

1.1 Introduction

For over a thousand years, before the world of electronics, paper was the dominant medium for people to share written and later printed information. People become familiar with paper at an early age, and there is an enormous worldwide infrastructure for the production and distribution of printed material. Despite this huge built‐in advantage, paper and print now fall short in providing for many demands of modern life. The past few decades have seen the emergence of electronic networks that transmit vast amounts of information, on‐demand, for use in various ways. Electronic displays are a necessary part of this infrastructure, converting bits to photons and serving as the final stage of transmitting information to people.

Over the years, several electronic display technologies have waxed and waned; cathode ray tubes, plasma displays, and super twisted nematic (STN) displays come to mind. A few technologies are dominant; backlit active‐matrix liquid crystal displays, active matrix organic light‐emitting diode (OLED) displays, and inexpensive, passively addressed liquid ...