Different from the common fiber paper, the paper-like display, in the narrow sense, is a kind of electricity-conductive and high-molecular material contains many micro spheres, while its appearance is same to the common paper with softness and can display the data repeatedly. In the paper-like display technology, the size of the micro sphere represents the pixel of display, and the characteristic of the micro sphere is to change its status by the external pressure drive. The feature of paper-like display is to change by the external drive pressure, therefore, the material is electricity-conductive, and finally, the high-molecular is to strengthen the flexibility of paper-like display, so it can be bend like the common paper. In the broad sense, all kinds of paper with reflect and memory, and without back light display are the paper-like display. The largest difference between paper-like display and LCD is that LCD needs back light, but paper-like display not. Next, LCD is without the memory, while paper-like display has.

Advantages of Paper-like Display

The sight and reading is comparatively good, even the long staring won¡¯t make the eyes feel tired, and it can adjust and process on the surface;

High comparison, which is to display by the rays reflected by the environment, and the stronger the environment rays are, the higher the comparison is. Compared to LCD depended on its own light, it is more suitable for the outdoor watch particularly. In addition, its reflectivity is six times to LCD, and the comparison is double times to LCD and newspaper respectively;

Environmental friendly and decrease the use of paper. If the newspaper, textbook, and file etc, all replaced by the paper-like display, it not only cut down the cost of printing, publishing and transportation, but also can eliminate the printing to decrease the pollution;

Low electricity consumption, and the paper-like display is with the double stability, and the picture has memory function, in addition, when the picture is immobile, and no electricity consumption is wasted;

High differentiate rate, the multiple products can achieve the differentiate rate of 200dpi, and the experimental product can be higher;

Thin, without the back light module, and the thickness can be thin as well as light. The thickness is generally 0.5 mm, while LCD is 2 mm;

With the potential of low cost, without the back light module and strict packaging, it is feasible to adopt the solution treatment technology, such as printing;

Low investment cost, the glass board is selective, and the expensive production line is not required;

The board is flexible, which can be glass, resin, metal and other surfaces;

Wide visual angle, due to the micro sphere structure and the wide reflective area, the visual angle can be 180 degree. Meanwhile, LCD requires the additional special adjustment to reach more than 80 degree.

Disadvantages of Paper-like Display

The response time is slow, and the best response time of the paper-like display is about 50ms, and the time for the multiple paper-like display is about 200-500ms, while LCD is usually 15-30ms, which means that the paper-like display can not play the continuous pictures;

It is difficult to achieve the colorful picture, as the principle of paper-like display is the black and white particles, it should add the color filter if wants to display the color. Although LCD requires the color filter as well, the brightness and comparison of the paper-like display will decrease if adds the color filter;

The low yield rate leads to the high cost, and the main process is the chemical working procedure with the hard control, currently, a large shipment should be required to probe to improve the yield rate experience;

Complicated drive;

Short lifespan, which is only about 5-10 years, is not suitable for the long-duration products, such as automobile.

The paper-like display has the wide market potential, and currently, the main market is the electronic price tag and electronic book reader.

The largest market of the electronic book reader is of the students, and the objective of which is to replace the textbook. The final cost of the electronic book is very low due to the textbook should be used for more than 10 successive years. Buying an electronic book reader is not economical of just read a few books in a short period, however, the students should use the textbook for more than 10 years, and if the electronic book replaces the textbook, then the textbook should not be printed once a year, what can only do is to upgrade the content.

At present, all the textbook content is electronic, and the electronic book reader match condition is basically mature. The key is the price, while the price key is the output, so once the output amounts to the certain level, the price will be decreased much, such as the development of LCD industry. There are more than 500 million students in middle and primary schools in the world, so it is a huge market, as long as the price amounts to about RMB 500, the market will take tremendous changes. The current price is about RMB 1800, and it is forecasted that the price will be RMB 500 in 2010. Then, the largest bottleneck is not the electronic book reader, but is the war among the interest groups.

Even if there is no student market, the adult reading fan market, especially the oversea market should be paid great attention. Currently, the average price of the electronic book reader in the market is about USD 250-300, and it is forecasted that it will be reduced to USD 150 in 2008, and then, the market will grow dramatically. The average retail price in 2010 will be lower than USD 100, and it is forecasted the global market scale will amount to 40 million units.

2 E-INK Paper-like Display Industry Chain
2.1 E-INK Paper-like Display Industry Chain
2.2 Key Manufacturers of E-INK Paper-like Display Industry Chain
2.2.1 E-INK
2.2.2 PVI

3 Main Application Fields and Market Research of Paper-like Display
3.1 Electronic Price Tag
3.1.1 Brief Introduction
3.1.2 Market
3.1.3 Sipix
3.1.4 ZBD
3.2 Electronic Book Reader
3.2.1 Market
3.2.2 Sony
3.2.3 Tianjin Jinke
3.2.4 IREX
3.2.5 ERead Technology
3.3 Other Application Fields
3.3.1 Weather Forecast Browser
3.3.2 Mobile Phone

4 Flexible Paper-like Display Manufacturers
4.1 Seiko Epson
4.2 Plastic Logic
4.3 Polymer Vision