VISVESVARAYA TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

Jnanasangama, Macche, Santibastwada Road, Belagavi-590018, Karnataka

A
TECHNICAL SEMINAR REPORT

On

E-PAPER TECHNOLOGY

(ECS84)
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of

Bachelor of Engineering
In
Electronics & Communications Engineering

By
LAVANYA V
VIII semester & A Section
(USN: 1DS15EC054)

Under the
Guidance
Of

SANGMESH MELINMANI
Seminar Guide
Asst professor, ECE Dept., DSCE, Bengaluru

Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering

 Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering
(An Autonomous College affiliated to VTU Belgaum & accredited by NBA/NAAC)
Shavige Malleshwara Hills, Kumaraswamy Layout,
Banashankari, Bengaluru-560078, Karnataka
April 2019
Seminar Report Declaration

Certified that the UG seminar (ECS84) entitled, “ E-Paper technology ” is a

bonafide work that is carried out by myself in partial fulfillment for the

award of degree of Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics & Communication

Engineering of the Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belagavi,

Karnataka during the academic year 2018-19 & I am solely responsible for

all the contents that has have been presented in it.

Student sign

Lavanya V
USN: 1DS15EC054
Date: 04/04/2019 Place: Bengaluru -78

_______________________________________ __________________

Section ‘A’ Seminar Coordinator Seminar Guide

Prof. Anuradha A.K. Prof .Sangmesh Melinmani

__________________________ ________________________

Seminar Convener / Mentor Head of the Department

Dr. H.V. Manjunath Dr. T.C.Manjunath

 CONTENTS

1. Abstract ....................................................................................................................................
. 7

2. Introduction ..............................................................................................................................
.8

3. Literature survey .....................................................................................................................

9

4. Scope &
Objective ....................................................................................................................11

5. Motivation
………………………… ..........................................................................................11

6. Technology
…............................................................................................................................12

7. Results & Applications ……………………....................................................................................

18

8. Conclusions ..............................................................................................................................
.20

9. References.............................................................................................................................
.21
10.
E Paper Technology
 E Paper Technology

Dept. of ECE DSCE 7 MAY 2019

 E Paper Technology

1. Abstract

Digital paper got its start in the particular seventies by means of Xerox. Inside

the nineties the particular principle of electronically crammed balls

switching under influence of tension and thus showing either Black or

white aspect was increased by Frederick Jacobson. They developed

microcapsules, filled up with electronically crammed white parts that have

been dissolved within dark coloured essential oil. In 1997, Jacobson founded

the business E-ink to build up the technology commercially (Endless

Suggestions BV, 2010) inside the 1970s.Electronic paper(E-paper) is

really a portable. Reusable storage devices and present medium that

appears like paper but can be repeatedly composed on (refreshed) by

means of electronic means, thousands or a lot of times. E-paper is

going to be used for applications including e-books, technology

newspaper, portable signs, & collapsible, reliable displays. Information to

become displays is usually downloaded by having a connection into a

computer or even a cell phone, or made up of mechanical tools including an

digital “pencil”. The digital paper present is reflective & can be easily read in

bright sunlight or candle lit environments while having the ability to be

viewed at virtually any angle much like paper. Its black colour & bright ink-

on-paper seem gives an appearance comparable to that of the very widely

read material on earth newspaper. The distinctive technology leads to a sleek

and stylish & light- weight from factor and can be suited to highly portable

applications. This subjective aims in order to throw light about the different

technical approaches working on the complete recognition of E-paper strategy.

Dept. of ECE DSCE 8 April 2019

 E Paper Technology

2. Introduction

Electronic paper and e-paper, also sometimes electronic ink or e-ink,

are display devices that mimic the appearance of ordinary ink on paper.

Unlike conventional backlit flat panel displays that emit light, electronic paper

displays reflect light like paper. This may make them more comfortable to

read, and provide a wider viewing angle than most light-emitting displays.

The contrast ratio in electronic displays available as of 2008 approaches

newspaper, and newly (2008) developed displays are slightly better.

An ideal e-paper display can be read in direct sunlight without the image

appearing to fade. Fig 2.1 shows the e paper display

Fig 1: E paper display

Many electronic paper technologies hold static text and images

indefinitely without electricity. Flexible electronic paper uses plastic

substrates and plastic electronics for the display backplane. There is ongoing

competition among manufacturers to provide full-color ability.

Unlike a normal flat cell display, which uses a backlight to illuminate it's

pixels, electronic papers reflects gentle like everyday paper and it is capable

involving holding wording and photos indefinitely with no drawing energy,

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 E Paper Technology

while permitting the image for being changed later on. To assemble e-paper, a

number of different technologies occur, some applying plastic substrate as

well as electronics so the display is actually flexible.

E-paper is known as more comfortable to read than typical displays. This is

due to the stable image, which doesn't have to always be refreshed constantly,

the, broader viewing point of view, and the fact that it employs reflected

background light. Whilst it is light and portable and tough, it still

lacks great colour reproduction.

The form of contrast ratio in accordance devices at the time of 2008 may very

well be described as much like dirty paper, though newly-developed

implementations tend to be slightly superior.

3. Literature survey

 Research on e-paper started roughly 35 years ago. One of the Xerox’s teams

led by Nicholas K. Sheridon invented Gyricon rotating ball display, which

was the groundwork of the first e-paper. Xerox’s concept in the early 70s was

the “paperless” office. However, more papers were used after the widespread

of personal computers. Computer monitors are uncomfortable to human’s

eye unlike ink on papers. Therefore, Xerox tried to develop e-paper, an

electronic based paper that closely resembles ink on paper. Yet, 35 years

since the invention of e-paper, it does not enter the market.

 The reason why it took so long for e-paper to enter the market was because

the early Gyricon technology was expensive and had a poor resolution.

Newer solutions to e-paper are electrophoretic frontplane and cholesteric

liquid crystal technology. Though, no current display technology is paper-like

yet. E-paper has to be thin, flexible, and comfortable to human’s eyes while

consumed minimal amount of power. One of the biggest obstacles is the cost

of e-paper. There is no doubt that this technology will be widespread when it

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 E Paper Technology

cheaper than 100$. Many companies such as E ink, SiPix, Polymervision,

IBM, Sony, Siemens, etc. see e-paper as a promising technology. Thus, they

continue to develop commercialized e-paper products. Other research efforts

into E-paper involved using organic transistors embedded into flexible

substrates (Huitema, et al., 2001 and Gelinck, 2004) including attempts to

build them into convectional paper (Anderson, et al., 2002).

 Electronic paper was first developed in the 1970s by Nick Sheridon at Xerox's
Palo Alto Research Center.[5] The first electronic paper, called Gyricon,
consisted of polyethylene spheres between 75 and 106 micrometers across.
Each sphere is a janus particle composed of negatively charged black plastic
on one side and positively charged white plastic on the other (each bead is
thus a dipole).[6] The spheres are embedded in a transparent silicone sheet,
with each sphere suspended in a bubble of oil so that they can rotate freely.
The polarity of the voltage applied to each pair of electrodes then determines
whether the white or black side is face-up, thus giving the pixel a white or
black appearance.[7] At the FPD 2008 exhibition, Japanese company Soken
demonstrated a wall with electronic wall-paper using this technology.[8] In
2007, the Estonian company Visitret Displays was developing this kind of
display using polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) as the material for the spheres,
dramatically improving the video speed and decreasing the control voltage.[9]

Fig 6.2 Gyricon

Dept. of ECE DSCE 11 April 2019

 E Paper Technology

 Currently, applications of e-paper are used for advertising billboards, display

screens for MP3 player or even on microwave. Also, e-paper can also be used

as a new method for labeling foods and drugs. In the next five years,

electronic signs and billboards made from e-paper should be widespread. In

2015, e-paper products should be available for most people and become a

real mass market.

4. Scope & Objectives

The E-paper will be embedded as a cylindrical tube (about 1 centimeter in

diameter or 15 to 20 centimeters long), that a person can comfortably carry in

his or her pocket. The tube will contain a tightly rolled sheet of E-paper that

can be spooled out of a slit in the tube as a flat sheet, for reading, and stored

again at the touch of a button.

Judging by recent developments in terms of display size and power

consumption in E-readers coming to market, the future of E-paper technology

is bright. In 10 to 20 years, consumers might see large E-paper modules that

are as thin and as flexible as magazines are today, with display brightness

approaching that of conventional print. In Heikenfeld’s imagined future, these

solar-powered devices will have touch interfaces, communication capabilities,

and be so energy efficient that changing them will be an afterthought. You

might click on an image in a story, and it will provide video or animation.

5. Motivation

Today, paper remains the most popular document medium because of its

credibility, tangibility, ease of use, flexibility, portability, and compatibility

which has made it difficult to replace. Even with the prevalence of computers

Dept. of ECE DSCE 12 April 2019

 E Paper Technology

and online documents, the paperless office is more distant than when it was

proposed. With paper documents flowing at a faster pace than ever, the need

for more document management system becomes increasingly inevitable.

Electronic Paper offers several advantages over printed paper. For example

you can use electronic bookmarks, choose you preferred level of

magnification, you can also use search to find information quickly, you have

the option to print on to real paper if required. So reconsidering completely to

replace all paper documents with electronic documents, and consequently, we

predict a co-existence between paper and E-paper.

6. Technology

 E paper is an electronic display device that posses the qualities of paper.

 E paper display or EPD is known as electronic ink display .
 The structure of E paper is shown in Fig 6.1

Fig 6.1 :Structure of E paper

E paper consists of three layers:
1. Sealing layer
2. E ink layer
3. Substrate conductor

Digital paper, otherwise known as e-paper, is often a display technology built

to mimic the appearance of everyday ink in writing. To assemble e-paper, a

Dept. of ECE DSCE 13 April 2019

 E Paper Technology

number of different technologies occur, some applying plastic substrate as well

as electronics so the display is actually flexible. E-paper is known as more

comfortable to read than typical displays. This is due to the stable image,

which doesn't have to always be refreshed constantly, the broader viewing

point of view, and the fact that it employs reflected background light.

Whilst it is light and portable and tough, it still lacks great colour

reproduction. The form a contrast ratio in accordance devices at the time of

2008 may very well be described as much like dirty paper, though newly-

developed implementations tend to be slightly superior.

Fig 6.2 : prototype of electronic paper display

Types of E paper display

 Electrophoretic display
 Electrowetting display
 Electrofluidic display

Fig 6.3 Electrophoretic Arrangement

Dept. of ECE DSCE 14 April 2019

 E Paper Technology

Fig 6.4 Electrophoretic display Fig 6.5 Modified electrophoteric display

Dept. of ECE DSCE 15 April 2019

 E Paper Technology

Dept. of ECE, DSCE 13 April 2019

 E Paper Technology

Dept. of ECE, DSCE 17 April 2019

 E Paper Technology

8. Conclusion

Today, e-paper as a new generation of electronic products, though attracted

various research institutions, the media and people's attention, but whether

it can break through the bottleneck to achieve popularity remains to be

seen. To be sure, the development of e-paper will give traditional information

carrier a huge challenge, more in-depth and comprehensive impact on

digital publishing, and change the traditional way of reading E-paper’s

features on passive light and energy-saving effectively fill the lack of

mainstream displays market such as LCD, OLED, etc. Future development

trend will focus on several aspects of reducing cost, color, flexible, quick

response [5]. As long as colorize and dynamic of e-paper is improved and

cost reduction, it will quickly be applied to various fields, meet different

needs of users, then achieve meet human society saving, low-carbon, green,

environmental protection, sustainable development.

Finally ,we can conclude that E paper displays are the displays to the future

because they are very energy efficient,truly portable and can be used

universally in various fields in which electronic displays haven’t ventured till

now.

It can also be assumed that after few years this technology will eventually

replace paper and lead us to a “paperless” world.

Dept. of ECE, DSCE 18 April 2019

 E Paper Technology

9. References

[1] Heikenfeld (2011). "A critical review of the present and future prospects for electronic

paper". J. Soc. Inf. Display 19: 129. doi:10.1889/JSID19.2.129.

[2] Akwukwuma, V.V.N. and F.O. Chete. 2012. “Electronic-Paper: The Electronic Display of

the Future”. Pacific Journal of Science and Technology. 13(2):173-180.

Heikenfeld (2011). "A critical review of the present and future prospects for electronic

paper". J. Soc. Inf. Display 19: 129. doi:10.1889/JSID19.2.129.

[3] Zhang, N. N., Gu, W., Xu, F. Q., & Yang, X. F. (2014). Electronic Paper Display

Technology and its Application Development. Advanced Materials Research, 926-930, 2333–

2336.doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.926-930.2333

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_paper

[5] https://www.digitaltrends.com/features/the-future-of-electronic-paper/

[6] https://www.engpaper.com/e-paper-technology.html
[7] IJIRST || National Conference on Innovations in Micro-electronics, Signal Processing and

Communication Technologies (V-IMPACT-2016) February 2016 || ISSN: 2349-6010

Dept. of ECE, DSCE 19 April 2019