ALDEL EDUCATION TRUST

ST. JOHN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING &

TECHNOLOGY, PALGHAR

E-INK TECHNOLOGY
PROJECT REPORT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE
PROJECT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF DEGREE OF

BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING
IN

COMPUTER ENGINEERING
BY
1. Omkar Shirsat
2. Rishab Singh
3. Kapil Singaria
4. Bushra Shaikh
5. Meshwa Shah
6. Durvesh Sonar

ST. JOHN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING &

TECHNOLOGY
MANOR ROAD, PALGHAR, MAHARASHTRA

University of Mumbai
Department of Computer Engineering

CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the Project Report entitled E-Ink
Technology records the original work carried out by the following
students:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Date:
Place: Palghar

Omkar Shirsat
Rishab Singh
Kapil Singaria
Durvesh Sonar
Meshwa Shah
Bushra Shaikh

Sign: _____________

Table of Contents
i. Acknowledgement
ii. Abstract
1. Introduction
2. History
3. Electrophoretic displays
3.1 Microcapsules
3.2 Working
3.3 Dual ink pigment system
3.4 Triple ink pigment system
3.5 Properties
4. Application
4.1 Wrist Watches
4.2 E-book readers
4.3 Status displays
4.4 Mobile phones
5. Advantages
6. Conclusion
7. Recommendation
8. Reference

Acknowledgements
We have made this report on the topic E-INK DISPLAY. We
wish to thank our entire group who have helped us with efforts
and wholehearted co-operation of each and every one has
ended on a successful note.
We express our sincere gratitude to Prof. Ranjeet Puyed who
assisted us throughout the preparation of this topic. We thank
him for providing us the reinforcement, confidence and most
importantly the track for the topic whenever we needed it.
Our sincere thanks to Mrs Neeta Patil, Head of Computer
Engineering Department, St. John College of Engineering and
Technology for providing necessary facilities for our project.
We also would like to thank our batch mates who directly or
indirectly helped in our project.

Abstract
Electronic Ink display (E-ink display) is a portable, reusable
storage and display medium that looks like paper but can be
repeatedly written on (refreshed) by electronic means,
thousands or millions of times. E-ink displays will be used for
applications such as e-books, electronic newspapers, portable
signs & flexible displays. Information to be displayed is
downloaded through a connection to a computer or a cell
phone, or created with mechanical tools such as an electronic
pencil. The electronic ink display is reflective & can be
easily read in bright sunlight or dimly lit environments while
being able to be seen at virtually any angle just like paper. Its
black & white ink-on-paper look gives an appearance similar
to that of the most widely read material on the planet newspaper. This unique technology results in a compact &
lightweight from factor allowing it to be ideal for highly
portable applications while being extremely energy efficient.
This report aims to throw light on the different technological
approaches towards the complete realization of E-ink concept.

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1. Introduction
Electronic ink display, e-paper or electronic paper is a display
technology which behaves like a normal paper because it uses
ink pigments used in printing industries to produce pixels on
the screen. Unlike a conventional flat panel display system
such as LCDs, TFTs etc., (also known as emissive displays)
which uses a backlight to illuminate its pixels, E-ink display
reflects ambient light just like ordinary paper. This gives it a
near paper like experience. The contrast ratio provided by Eink displays is also very similar or probably greater than actual
paper. It is capable of holding text and images for virtually
indefinite amount of time. Once an image is set on display, the
pixels are set in position and remain in idle state. Thus, E-ink
displays do not require any external power supply to
continuously displaying images. The image can later be
changed by applying a varying voltage over the film. This
makes E-ink ideal for still displays which requires refreshes
less frequently such as bill-boards, menu items at restaurants,
etc. It also uses much less resources compared to others in
terms of electricity, cost, processing, etc. while keeping eye
strain as low as possible.
To build e-paper, several different technologies exist. (gyricon,
electrophoretic, electrowetting, etc) Some of them use a plastic
substrate to provide flexible displays while some use glass
beads to provide high refresh rate. E-ink displays have the
potential to be more comfortable to read than conventional
display. This is due to the stable image, which does not need to
be refreshed constantly, the wider viewing angle, and the fact
that it reflects ambient light rather than emitting its own light.
An e-paper display can be read in direct sunlight without the
image appearing to fade. The contrast ratio in available
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displays can be described as similar to that of newspaper. This

technique can be freely expanded to provide tri-colour
displays such as RGB or CMY panels.
Electronic ink display should not be confused with digital
paper, which is a pad to create handwritten digital documents
with a digital pen. The applications of E-ink displays include
electronic pricing labels in retail shops, and general signage,
time tables at bus stations, electronic billboards, the mobile
phone MOTOROLA FONE F3, and e-Readers capable of
displaying digital versions of books and e-paper magazines
(Amazon Kindle, BookBub, etc.). E-ink display is a boon for
bookworms for their love of reading and a very useful product
in this world of ever increasing need for resources.

2. History
The first ever working E-ink display was developed in the
1970s by Nick Sheridon at Xeroxs at Palo Alto Research
Centre. It was made up of particle called gyricon. The
displays were flexible and is viewable from a wide angle, but
it can be erased and written thousands of times.
It consists of polyethylene spheres between 75 and 106 micro
meters across. Each sphere is a Jenus Particle composed of
negatively charged black plastic on one side and positively
charged white plastic on the other. This creates a dual colored
sphere which can be alternated to create the appearance of
monochromatic colors. The spheres are embedded in a
transparent silicone sheet. Each of these spheres are suspended
in a bubble of oil so that they can rotate freely between
silicone layers. There is an electrode for each of these spheres
placed at the top and bottom of the spheres.

Gyricon Spheres in action

A voltage is applied at these electrodes to change the position
of the spheres. The polarity of the voltage applied determines
whether the white or black side is faces-up. This gives the
pixel a white or black appearance. A continual pattern of these
potential differences produces an image onto the display
screen.

Some Advantages and Disadvantages of Gyricon

The gyricon sheet was the first ever E-ink display. It was
flexible, monochromatic and easily refreshable.
But the refresh rate of gyricon was far behind the current
technologies. It even lacked in contrast and sharpness. Thus
new technologies emerged.

Gyricon Sheet Sample at Xeroxs Laboratory

3. Electrophoretic displays
The term electrophoresis is a composition of 'electro' and
'phoresis'. These words are derived from the Greek words for
'charge' and 'the act of carrying'. In that way, the name
'electrophoretic display' already gives a hint about its basic
working principle.
They are the display devices that mimic the appearance of
ordinary ink on paper. Traditional display devices like TFT,
LCD, etc. have a backlight. They form color pixels over the
backlight. The backlight is a fully white light comprising of all
colors. Only those light are allowed to pass which we require.
Thus forms an image over the display.
E-ink uses actual ink pigments which reflect natural ambient
light rather than using its own light. This creates a natural
paper like experience which is easy towards eyes. It also helps
to reduce resources consumed like power, processing,
memory, etc. The contrast ratio provided by E-ink is nearly
equal to paper. The displays can also be read in direct sunlight
due to its reflective property. These displays also do not
require continuous supply of electricity to display its content.
They only require electricity when there is an update on the
display.
E-ink displays are used mostly in e-book readers, wrist
watches, newspapers, status displays, mobile phones, etc. due
to its low cost and energy efficiency. E-ink display consists of
micro-capsules which contains electrically charged ink
pigments. These micro-capsules are dynamically changed by
applying varying voltages over the screen.

3.1 Micro-capsules
Micro-capsules are the pixels of an E-ink display. They are
made up of micro glass spheres of about 10 to 100 microns.
These spheres are sandwiched between two glass or plastic
substrate of width around 10 to 20 microns. Plastic substrates
allow displays to be flexible and cheap. This creates a thin film
of many glass beads over a thin sheet. The top part is
transparent to provide viewing for the user. The spheres
contain charged ink particles which are dipole in nature. In
monochromatic system, there are two colors of ink in the
sphere which are oppositely charged to each other.

Micro-capsules

These spheres are filled with a fluid (typically oil or glycerin)

to allow freely movement of ink particles.
At bottom of this film lies array of electrodes which are
controlled by a micro-controller which in-turn is handled by
system. By applying a varying voltage field, the movement of
particles can be controlled and an image is formed.

3.2 Working
The working of the micro-capsules is entirely handled by the
array of electrodes present under the microcapsules. The
controller applies varying voltages which changes the
behaviour of the ink inside capsules.

Typically, a microcapsule consists of positively charged white

pigments and negatively charged black pigments. If a
positively charged electric field is applied on the electrode, the
negatively charged black pigments are attracted towards the
electrode and the oppositely charged pigments are repelled
towards the transparent sheet. This creates an appearance of
white colour to the user. For creating appearance of black
colour, a negative electric field is applied to the electrode. This
pushes black pigments towards the user. The speed of
switching between black and white determines E-inks refresh
rate.
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For providing a higher viewing experience, two electrodes are

provided for a single microcapsule. If different charges are
applied to both of these electrodes, then half of the both types
pigments are at top and bottom. This creates an intermediate
view between black and white.

3.3 Dual ink pigment system:

In dual ink pigment system, a microcapsule consists of two
different types of ink having opposite charges. These two
colors are chosen based on their contrasting features (Typically
black and white for higher visibility) By applying alternate
voltages, system can switch between these two colours. If
black and white colours are used, then these displays are
known as monochromatic displays. Thus, a single capsule is a
pixel for the display.

3.4 Triple ink pigment system:

A triple ink pigment system can be visualized as a
combination of three microcapsules. These three capsules are
closely placed to each other. Each of these microcapsules have
their own pair of electrodes for colour switching. It is similar
to the dual ink system but the white colour is replaced with a
particular colour for each capsule. These colour are generally
based on RGB or CMY colour models. The three
microcapsules act as a single pixel and works together to
produce different combination of colours to the viewer. As the
width of the capsule is as small as width of human hair, it is
hard for the user to differentiate between the individual
colours.

3.5 Properties

Near paper like experience

High contrast ratio

Low cost of production

Holds image almost indefinitely

Refreshment of display required only when content

changes

Reflects ambient light

4. Application
4.1 Wristwatches:
a. In December 2005 Seiko released their Spectrum
SVRD001 wristwatch, which has a flexible
electrophoretic display and in March 2010 Seiko
released a second generation of this famous e-ink
watch with an active matrix display.

4.2 E-book readers

a. In 2004 Sony released the Libri in Japan, the first
e-book reader with an electronic paper E Ink
display.
b. In 2015, Amazon released Amazon Kindle, its first
low cost e-ink e-book reader.

4.3 Status displays

a. Some devices, like USB flash drives, have used
electronic paper to display status information, such
as available storage space.
b. Once the image on the electronic paper has been
set, it requires no power to maintain.

4.4 Mobile phones

a. Motorola's low-cost mobile phone, the Motorola
F3, uses an alphanumeric black-and-white
electrophoretic display.
b. Yota Devices announced the first "YotaPhone"
prototype and was later released on December
2013, a unique double-display smartphone.
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5. Advantages
1. Lower Power Consumption
2. Cheap cost of production
3. Resources efficient
4. Holds images almost indefinitely
5. Requires refresh only when content changes
6. Reflects ambient light
7. Can be viewed directly under the sun
8. Flexible displays
9. No glare

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6. Conclusion
E-ink display is new kind of revolutionary product that can
change how one perceives the current displays over books or
papers. Almost all of the displays now-a-days tends to create
eye glare with their current backlight system. This can be eye
soring if user views over it for a long time. Hence, E-ink
display comes into play as they provide a near paper like
experience to the user creating a virtual ecosystem of new kind
of readers.
Ever increasing need of papers have led this world to
destruction of our environment. The demand for resources is
already high in this world. E-ink display aims to provide a
better alternative to paper, benefitting everyone.

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7. Recommendation
These are some of the recommendation that can be used to
improve our project.

The E-ink displays shall be used in many fields such as ereaders, e-papers, menu cards, etc.

More resources should be supplied in research and

development of E-ink displays.

Easy access to the masses via mass production of displays.

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8. References
1. Heikenfeld (2011). "A critical review of the present and
future prospects for electronic paper". J. Soc. Inf.
Display.
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_paper
3. Comiskey, B.; Albert, J. D.; Yoshizawa, H.; Jacobson, J.
(1998). "An electrophoretic ink for all-printed reflective
electronic displays". Nature. 394 (6690): 253255.
doi:10.1038/28349
4. Rogers, John A; Bao, Zhenan; Baldwin, Kirk;
Dodabalapur, Ananth; Crone, Brian; Raju, V R; Kuck,
Valerie; Katz, Howard; Amundson, Karl; Ewing, Jay;
Drzaic, Paul (24 April 2001). "Paper-like electronic
displays: Large-area rubber-stamped plastic sheets of
electronics and microencapsulated electrophoretic inks"

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