Low power reflective display with print-like color via novel electronic inks

Reflective display technologies aim to enable the delivery of dynamic digital content to devices that have the look and feel of ink on paper. We are presenting herein a novel device architecture design and proprietary electrically addressable inks, which enable low power, disruptive, print-like full color reflective display that can exceed the chromaticity represented by the Specifications for Newsprint Advertising Production (SNAP) standard. We are approaching the challenge of generating bright high-quality reflective color images from the perspective of printing by stacking electro-optic layers of subtractive colorants to address every available color at every location. Using in-plane optical effects, our novel media technology provides fast switching between clear and color states. Thin, flexible electronic media based on this technology has been fabricated by imprinting three-dimensional micro-scale structures with a continuous roll-to-roll (R2R) manufacturing platform. HP’s combination of novel device architecture, proprietary inks, and R2R manufacturing platform enables the required attributes for electronic media such as flexibility, robustness, low power, transparency, print-quality color, and scalability at low cost. The structure property relationship of surfactants has been carried out; their impact on performance of display devices has been studied. These results have been applied to improve the performance of electronic inks. We have demonstrated 3-layer stacked segmented reflective display prototypes, as well as pixelated stacked color reflective display prototypes. The innovations described in this paper are applicable to electronic skins for customizable electronic surfaces and are currently being developed further for electronic paper and signage markets.