Summary

The commercial success of the Amazon Kindle and the lesser yet still quite substantial uptake of e-book readers such as the iRex iLIad or the SONY PRS family have sparked up a large interest in electronic paper technologies.
Electronic paper is a display technology designed to mimic the appearance of ordinary ink on paper. Unlike conventional flat panel displays, it doesn¡¯t require a backlight to illuminate its pixels as it reflects light like paper does and can hold text and images indefinitely without drawing power.

Out of the technologies that could be suitable for electronic paper applications, electrophoretic displays are seeing the strongest growth. Although currently not available in full colour (but available in grayscale), electrophoretic displays found the perfect application in the development of e-book readers as, books are also black and white. Other technologies are also being used in the development of e-book readers and are covered in this report, like the FUJITSU color reader that utilizes cholesteric LCD technology by KENT displays.

Electrochromic or electrowetting displays, although not yet utilized are possible candidates for applications that will be commercialized in the near future. Several other products that are either already available or in the process of becoming available are using technologies such as those by TRED or Nemoptic. The companies that develop them are playing on the strengths of these technologies and hence focus on different applications. These would range from small size such as smart card displays and point of purchase labels to larger size ones such as billboards, posters and signage, train station displays etc.

How much more will the eBook reader market grow? When will eBook readers be available in full colour and when will the flexible versions reach the market? Which technologies will gain the biggest market share and which products will become popular with consumers in the next few years? Find out all about the projected market growth and overall penetration of electronic paper technologies in this new report.

Table of Contents

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 1
2. INTRODUCTION 1
2.1. Scope 1
2.2. How e-paper displays are being applied 2
2.3. Flexible is a big market 3
2.4. Color, switching speed 5
2.5. E-Books 6
2.6. Cellphones, music players 7
2.7. Smart card displays 9
2.8. Electronic apparel 9
2.9. Posters/signage 10
2.9.1. Clear Channel 10
2.10. Smart packaging/brand enhancement 12
2.10.2. Duracell 13
2.10.3. Cloetta bisquit/ACREO winking sign 14
2.10.4. VTT Technology beer package game 14
2.11. E-paper displays have the largest market share for all flexible displays 15
3. ELECTROPHORETIC DISPLAYS 17
3.1. E Ink 17
3.1.1. Technology 18
3.1.2. Products 20
3.2. Sipix: Microcup® electrophoretic display 25
3.2.1. Technology 25
3.2.2. AUO and Sipix 28
3.3. Bridgestone: Quick Response Liquid Powder Display? 29
4. ELECTROWETTING DISPLAYS 33
4.2. Liquavista 34
4.2.1. Technology 34
4.3. ITRI, Taiwan and PVI, Taiwan 39
4.4. adt, Germany 39
5. OTHER BISTABLE DISPLAYS 41
5.1. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology 41
5.2. Kent Displays 43
5.3. TRED 44
5.3.1. Technology 44
5.4. Nemoptic 45
5.4.1. Technology 46
5.5. Products 46
6. ELECTROCHROMIC DISPLAYS 49
6.2. Ntera 50
6.3. Acreo 51
6.3.1. Electrochemical displays on paper 52
6.4. Aveso 55
6.5. Ajjer 55
7. DISPLAY MAKERS 57
7.1. Prime View International (PVI) 57
7.1.1. Technology 57
7.1.2. Flexible e-paper displays using EPLaR 59
7.2. Plastic Logic 63
7.3. LG 66
7.4. i-Rex 68
7.5. Samsung 68
7.6. Seiko Epson 69
7.7. NEC 70
7.8. Polymer Vision 71
7.8.2. Technology 73
7.8.3. What went wrong 74
8. OTHER RELATED FLEXIBLE DISPLAY COMPONENTS AND DEVELOPMENTS 77
8.1. Electrofluidic Displays: Gamma-Dynamics 77
8.2. Thermochromic displays 78
8.3. Optical shutter film: Citala, USA 79
8.4. Adhesives, Delo Germany 82
9. E-READERS 87
9.1. Content availability 87
9.2. Amazon Kindle and Kindle 2 88
9.2.2. Amazon Kindle DX 89
9.2.3. FUJITSU FLEPia 91
9.3. Iliad & Digital Reader 93
9.4. SONY Readers 95
9.5. Brother Industries, Japan 96
9.6. TXTR 98
9.7. Hanvon 99
10. FORECASTS 101
10.1. Forecasts by technology 101
10.1.1. Forecasts for color versus non color 2009-2020 102
10.1.2. Electrophoretic displays market forecasts 2009-2020 104
10.1.3. Electrochromic displays market forecasts 2009-2020 105
10.1.4. Forecasts by application 106
10.2. Costing 108
APPENDIX 1: LIST OF E READERS, PAST AND PRESENT 113

Tables Page
Table 1.1 Market forecasts by technology, 2009-2020 2
Table 1.2 Market forecasts by application, 2009-2020 3
Table 2.1 Main factors driving the rapid growth of electronic smart packaging 12
Table 10.1 Market forecasts by technology, 2009-2020 102
Table 10.2 Market Forecasts for electronic paper and the market share for color electronic paper, 2009-2020 103
Table 10.3 Electrophoretic displays market forecasts 2009-2020 104
Table 10.4 Electrochromic displays market forecasts 2009-2020 105
Table 10.5 Market forecasts by application, 2009-2020 106
 
Figures Page
Fig. 1.1 Market forecasts by technology, 2009-2020 2
Fig. 1.2 Market forecasts by application, 2009-2019 4
Fig. 2.1 Printed Electronics Applications 3
Fig. 2.2 Flexible devices offer advantages in terms of consumer satisfaction 5
Fig. 2.3 Samsung Alias? 2 8
Fig. 2.4 Reprogrammable electrophoretic decoration on Hitachi mobile phones only needs power when being changed 9
Fig. 2.5 T-equaliser animated t-shirt 10
Fig. 2.6 An example of the display on a billboard picture in use in London 11
Fig. 2.7 Duracell batteries/Avery Dennison tester 14
Fig. 2.8 Cloetta 14
Fig. 2.9 VTT Technology beer package game 15
Fig. 3.1 Electronic ink microcapsules 18
Fig. 3.2 EPD pixel appearance 19
Fig. 3.3 Retail Shelf Edge Labels from UPM 20
Fig. 3.4 Secondary display on a cell phone 21
Fig. 3.5 Samsung Alias? 2 22
Fig. 3.6 SEIKO E-Ink watch 22
Fig. 3.7 Lexar portable USB flash drive 23
Fig. 3.8 World's first display on a magazine cover 24
Fig. 3.9 Microcup® Structure 25
Fig. 3.10 Sipix Roll-to-Roll micro embossing process 26
Fig. 3.11 Embosser mold and embossed microcups 26
Fig. 3.12 Structure of Sipix e-paper 26
Fig. 3.13 Electrophoretic display on a commercially sold financial card 27
Fig. 3.14 SD card from A Data with a Sipix display 28
Fig. 3.15 Sipix Clock 28
Fig. 3.16 Schematic of the features of Electronic Liquid Powder? 29
Fig. 3.17 Bridgestone e-paper price tag 30
Fig. 3.18 Bridgestone fully bendable electronic paper 30
Fig. 3.19 Relationship between radius of curvature and reflectivity in the states of black and white in flexible QR-ELP? 31
Fig. 3.20 Roll to roll processing steps for Bridgestone's e-paper display 31
Fig. 3.21 Flexible Full Color QR-LPD 32
Fig. 4.1 Example of a droplet contracting and relaxing 34
Fig. 4.2 Water droplets on hydrophobic surface (a) without and (b) with voltage applied 35
Fig. 4.3 Electrowetting display principle 36
Fig. 4.4 Comparison of power consumption for a variety of video displays 37
Fig. 4.5 The concept of the ¡°future of electronic paper¡± according to Liquavista 37
Fig. 4.6 Excellent viewing angles in TFT backplanes and backlights 38
Fig. 4.7 Flow chart of the manufacture process 39
Fig. 4.8 adt electrowetting displays 40
Fig. 4.9 EnOcean wireless switch 40
Fig. 5.1 Color LCD by photo alignment 42
Fig. 5.2 Color printable flexible LCD 43
Fig. 5.3 KENT Displays' Reflex? LCD 44
Fig. 5.4 TRED's EMD2 technology 45
Fig. 5.5 Principle of operation for Nemoptic's BiNem® technology 46
Fig. 5.6 A4 e-paper display 47
Fig. 6.1 Electrochromic display on a Valentine's card sold by Marks and Spencer in the UK in 2004 and electrochromic display with drive circuits in a laminate for smart cards.. 50
Fig. 6.2 Ntera Display 51
Fig. 6.3 The dollhouse. When energy is added to the system the color of the wallpaper changes and a picture appears on the wall 53
Fig. 6.4 Two state electrolytic display on paper 54
Fig. 6.5 Seven segment display printed with bi-stable inks 54
Fig. 6.6 Aveso electrochromic display 55
Fig. 7.1 Glass e-book backplane 58
Fig. 7.2 Field shielded pixels 58
Fig. 7.3 TFT design 59
Fig. 7.4 Glass e-Book module making 59
Fig. 7.5 THE EPLaR process 61
Fig. 7.6 TFT DC stability 61
Fig. 7.7 Mobilities on glass, EPLaR before release & EPLaR after release 62
Fig. 7.8 9.7'' and 6'' flexible e-paper displays by PVI 62
Fig. 7.9 Photograph of a 9.7" EPLaR display 63
Fig. 7.10 The Plastic Logic e-reader 65
Fig. 7.11 A4 size Flexible Color e-paper 67
Fig. 7.12 Cross section of LG's e-paper display 67
Fig. 7.13 Seiko Epson e-reader 70
Fig. 7.14 A3 and A4 e-paper displays 71
Fig. 7.15 The Readius® by Polymer Vision 72
Fig. 7.16 A Polymer Vision display 72
Fig. 7.17 Display Processing Steps 73
Fig. 8.1 Comparison of electrophoretic/electrofluidic display performance in color and grayscale 78
Fig. 8.2 Duracell battery tester 79
Fig. 8.3 Interactive game on a beer package by VTT Technologies in Finland 79
Fig. 8.4 Edge encapsulation of an electrophoretic display with adhesive (blue). The DELO adhesive can be cured through the UV-blocked barrier layer (glass, PET, PEN, etc.) by means of visible light. 82
Fig. 8.5 Selection of different development products 83
Fig. 8.6 Example for the flexibility of a cured adhesive film with a thickness of 150¦Ìm (no substrate, just adhesive). 84
Fig. 9.1 Kindle and Kindle 2 89
Fig. 9.2 Kindle DX 90
Fig. 9.3 Effect of 16 level grayscale and smoothing algorithm on text display 91
Fig. 9.4 The Fujitsu FLEPia 92
Fig. 9.5 Digital Reader and Iliad by iRex Technologies 93
Fig. 9.6 The device uses an ink display and incorporates a touch screen 95
Fig. 9.7 The SONY LIBRI¨¦ 96
Fig. 9.8 Brother Industries large area e-reader 97
Fig. 9.9 The txtr reader is based on E-Ink technology 98
Fig. 9.10 Hanvon Technology claims the world's first 5" Electronic Book series, 99
Fig. 10.1 Market forecasts by technology, 2009-2020 102
Fig. 10.2 Market Forecasts for electronic paper and the market share for full color electronic paper, 2009-2020 103
Fig. 10.3 Market forecasts by application, 2009-2020 107
Fig. 10.4 Component cost breakdown for the Amazon Kindle 2 109