Epson's 7.1-inch, QXGA e-paper

Seiko Epson, consistently at the forefront of new flexible display technology, has once again announced a breakthrough in plastic-substrate-based electronic paper manufacturing. Using its proprietary SUFTLA (surface-free technology by laser annealing) technique, combined with electrophoretic technology from US-based E-Ink, the company has managed to produce a 0.47-millimeter-thick, A6-size (7.1-inch) sheet of e-paper that sports an impressive 2,048 x 1,536 pixels (QXGA) and a maximum drive voltage of six volts. The new display, which also features a 10:1 contrast ratio and almost border-less design, was announced at the Society for Information Display's (SID) recent international symposium in San Francisco.

[Via Akihabara News]

[** Hello Moto ** @ Jun 12th 2006 10:28AM]

I don't think e-paper/e-readers are ever going to work.

[daviel @ Jun 12th 2006 10:33AM]

SWEET, that's awsome!!!!!

This is awsome!!!!!

E-Paper!!!!!!!!!!

I WANT SOME!!!!

[Yaotl @ Jun 12th 2006 10:35AM]

Yay more product that still isn't on the market yet. Of all this advancement for e-paper, how about some freakin' readily available products?

[Yvan @ Jun 12th 2006 10:43AM]

Good ! I was hoping for other players on that market. IRex is too expensive and Sony is too snobbish. How about Samsung and RCA ?

[atte @ Jun 12th 2006 10:43AM]

mmmm, so much possibilities

[Mr. Magoo @ Jun 12th 2006 10:53AM]

"...draws a maximum of just six volts of power..."

That's like saying something has an area of six inches.

Dr. Zelby would give you an F.

[Dan @ Jun 12th 2006 10:53AM]

Voltage is not a measurement of power.

[Nate @ Jun 12th 2006 11:14AM]

What's all this vaporware-esque talk regarding this tech? Yeah, it's not readily available, but if they're getting something as large as A6 paper, it sounds like it might be close. This is a great technology with a boat-load of potential.

But my question is, how much does it cost to produce one of these? I'm guessing that it's fairly cost-prohibitive at this stage.

[Pete @ Jun 12th 2006 11:37AM]

Sorry to be so picky, but volts is not a unit of power.

[chenry @ Jun 12th 2006 11:45AM]

Now that's really freakin' neat. I remember a teacher in high school talking about this years ago and we all thought he was CRAZY

[Mike Smith @ Jun 12th 2006 11:46AM]

A6 is 148mm long, 2048/148 = 13.8 dots/mm, or over 350 dpi. Hot *damn*.

[nm @ Jun 12th 2006 11:52AM]

So how much current does it draw at 6 volts?

[Bergamot @ Jun 12th 2006 11:59AM]

Uh, a 10:1 contrast ratio is much much less than even bad LCDs. Is this a typo?

[David @ Jun 12th 2006 12:02PM]

A couple others already pointed it out, but it bears repeating:

"and draws a maximum of just six volts of power" is meaningless -- you can draw current, but voltage is what gets applied. And it's voltage x current that gives you power. So, for all we know, this new gadget runs on 6V at 1000 Amps and uses the same amount of power as microwave ovens.

To the engadget author's defense, the mis-type was just based on the poor wording of the original article: "Maximum drive voltage even for editing information is just 6 volts, showing that the display itself consumes very little power." -- an eggregious error as voltage is only 1/2 the Power equation.

Perhaps this is meant to imply that the device can run off of 6V in batteries (but is it 4x1.5V AAA, AA, C, or D cells that are required? Or one of those giant 6V Lantern Batteries?)

[ug @ Jun 12th 2006 12:12PM]

QXGA?

Why doesn't the computer industry just drop the whole __GA codewords related to resolution and just use ___x___? Those are obsolete terms from the original PC graphics cards. They have to keep inventing new codewords on a daily basis to describe oddball resolutions, HD, widescreen, etc... It's annoying.

[Enitime @ Jun 12th 2006 1:41PM]

"Uh, a 10:1 contrast ratio is much much less than even bad LCDs. Is this a typo?"

No, it just works differently than monitors, what with the no backlighting and all.

10:1 is roughly the same contrast you'd get with black text printed on -slightly- gray paper.

[Taylor @ Jun 12th 2006 1:45PM]

Electrical business aside, what's this "almost border-less design" you mentioned? It looks like it has at least a 1/2 inch border... is that right?
-Taylor

[rutsy5 @ Jun 12th 2006 5:00PM]

about the border, that gray I beleive is actaully what is diplayed... looks to me like a 1/4 inch border except on the bottom, where extra room is given for things like power supply and input. can i just say that is some hot paper

[Hubert @ Sep 13th 2006 4:44AM]

EPSON is a great display maker but a poor ISO user.
A4 is a 210x297mm size, 364mm diag.(14.3')
Dividing 297 by 2 gives 148mm, and the name is A5 :
148x210mm size, 182mm diag (7.1').
Dividing 210 by 2 gives 105mm and the name is A6...

Remind format name: Ax with x=power of two dividing the reference 1 square meter, name A0 (841x1189 mm)
Get ritcher information :
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-paper.html

[Sim @ Nov 3rd 2006 7:39AM]

I think your corespondents may be missing the point about contrast ratios and electronic paper.
If you have a display that emits light, rather than working with reflective light [the way paper does], the reflective display will have a lower contrast ratio. However, in 'normal reading' this is an advantage. It is generally acknowledged that it is not as comfortable to read small text from a glowing display as from a reflective display [i.e a book, magazine, or paper].
It's horses for courses.