Perspectives and Challenges of Electrophoretic Displays

The commercialization of an active matrix e-reader display using E Ink microencapsulated electrophoretic (MEP) ink marked a big step towards comfortable reading over an extended period of time in an electronic book, as the high resolution display, jointly realized by Philips, E Ink and Toppan, has a true paper-like look and feel. Alternative electrophoretic material systems are being developed by SiPix and Bridgestone and progress has been made in the past two years. In this paper, electrophoretic material systems are briefly reviewed, after which the perspectives and challenges of electrophoretic displays are addressed and methods for generating gray tones are presented and discussed.