by Playfuls Staff |
5th June 2006
E Ink and Dialog Seminconductors have agreed to develop drivers for consumer products requiring paper-thin displays. Dialog Semiconductor, a world-leading developer and supplier of power management, [more]audio semiconductor technology will provide support-drivers for E Ink's revolutionary flexible displays.
Displays made with E Ink's Imaging Film are suited for flexible display applications due to their thin form factor and inherent flexibility. E Ink's electronic ink is an image stable reflective display technology that uses ultra-low power but is easily read under any lighting condition including direct sunlight. Unlike liquid crystal displays, the image on the displays looks the same from all viewing angles and will not distort when touched or flexed, making electronic ink the ideal display medium for flexible displays and portable devices.
E Ink currently offers all-plastic segmented cells that are flexible and comformable. These cells can be used in a range of applications from clocks and watches to electronic shelf displays and preprogrammed signage. While E Ink's display materials already enable fully flexible displays, flexible backplane technology for high-resolution, active matrix displays are in the development stage. Once these backplanes are widely available to display manufacturers we can expect to see the adoption of flexible displays in a number of applications requiring high resolution.
These are ideally suited for many consumer and industrial applications, such as eBooks that give the reader a true paper-like visual experience, cellphone screens which can now have high contrast and brightness in the widest of lighting conditions, transportation signage, and many other display applications.
The paper-thin displays are enabled by an electrically addressable ink embedded in a polymer matrix, resulting in a reflective display technology which requires no front or backlight, is viewable under a wide range of lighting conditions, including direct sunlight, and requires no power to maintain an image – resulting in a significant increase in battery life.
Dialog Semiconductor worked closely with E Ink to define a specification for its electrophoretic display drivers, producing a very thin IC package to minimize the thickness of the overall display module. The display driver ICs which are now being shipped by Dialog Semiconductor incorporate both the company’s advanced power management expertise along with a high level of on-chip integration to minimize power consumption.
