Rollable electrical displays are the holy grail of display technology…well they were until a University of Cincinnati Electrical Engineering Professor raised the possibility of paper-based, disposable flexible displays.
According to a report on Physorg.com, Professor Andrew Steckl has effectively demonstrated that actual paper can be used as an “electrowetting” (EW) device. Essentially this means the paper can hold electrified droplets that can be controlled to mimic print on paper and, more impressively, color video. In the research paper, published this month in Applied Materials & Interfaces, Steckl reports working with a variety of paper types, with “coating, roughness, thickness, and water uptake, among the most important properties” for effectively supporting EW.
Companies like Qualcomm are already working on color electronic ink displays and some, like Skiff, have even showed off flexible black-and-white e-ink displays. However, none of them have made it to market and the so-called flexible displays still end up under some-kind of rigid screen (plastic or glass) .
For now, all e-ink readers use a glass substrate–as do most backlit display readers like the iPad and Nook. They’re designed to last for years. E-readers based on Steckl’s new technology could be used for a day or week and disposed as safely as a piece of paper.
Don’t get excited about rolling up your favorite paper-based e-reader and stuffing it into your back pocket just yet. Steckl’s electrowetting paper still needs funding and is at least five years away from commercial delivery. In the meantime, I’m contemplating the possibility of a stack of digital papers sitting in the corner of my home–waiting for recycling. This is progress?
Image Credit: ACS Publications
