International Journal of Trend in Research and Development, Volume 3(5), ISSN: 2394-9333

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E-Paper Technology
1
Mythili.G.A., 2Pavithrah.B.R. and 3Manjubhashni.S,
1,2,3
Scholar, Department of Information Technology, Sri Krishna Arts and Science College, Coimbatore, TamilNadu, India.

Abstract: Electronic paper(e-paper) is a portable .It is said to be eyes while consumed minimal amount of power. One of the
reusable storage and display medium that looks like paper but biggest obstacles is the cost of e-paper .There is no doubt that the
can be repeatedly written on (refreshed) by electronic means technology will be widespread when it is cheaper than
,thousands or millions times. It is also said to be used for 100$.Many companies such as E ink, SiPix, Polymer vision,
applications such as e-books, electronic newspaper, portable IBM, etc. see e-paper as a promising technology. Thus, they
signs and foldable display. This paper discusses the history, continue to develop commercialized e-paper products.
features and technology of the electronic paper revolution. The
III. E-PAPER TECHNOLOGIES
paper concludes that e-paper, which can be termed as the second
paper revolution, is closer to changing the way we read, write Electronic paper is said to be portable. Reusable storage and
and study; a revolution so phenomenal that some researchers see display medium that looks like paper but can be repeatedly
it as second only to invention of the printing press by Gutenberg written on (refreshed) by electronic means, thousands or millions
in the 15th century. of times.
Keywords: Electronic Paper (E-Paper), Invention, Printing, To build e-paper several different technologies exist, some using
Innovation, Printing Media. plastic substrate and electronics so that the display is flexible.
I. INTRODUCTION
E-paper is also known as electronic paper and it is a technology
designed to imitate the look and style of ordinary ink paper. E-
paper reflects light just as ordinary paper does, unlike the usual
flat-panel display that is lit with a backlight to illuminate pixels.
It is capable of holding text and images indefinitely without
drawing electricity, while allowing the image to be changed
later.
Electronic paper was first developed in the seventies by Xerox.
In the nineties the principle of electronically loaded balls turning
under influence of tension and therefore showing either a black
or white side was improved upon by joseph Jacobson. In 1997,
Jacobson founded the company E-link to develop the invention
commercially (Endless Ideas BV, 2010).
In the 1970s, Xerox PARC was a power house of innovation.
Many aspect of the modern computer, namely the mouse, laser
E-paper has the potential to be more comfortable to read than
printer, GUI, a computer generated color graphics as well as a
conventional display. This is due to the stable image, which does
number of important computer languages were invented at
not need to be refreshed constantly, the wider angle and the fact
PARC, around that time .Yet another development, nearly lost
that it reflects ambient light rather than emitting its own light. An
among those important. e-paper display can read in direct sunlight without the image
II. HISTORY OF E-PAPER appearing to fade. The contrast ratio in available displays as of
2008 might be described as similar to that of newspaper, though
Research on e-paper started roughly 35 years ago .One of the newly developed implementations are slightly better. There is
Xerox's teams led by Nicholas K. Sheridan invented Gyricon ongoing competition among manufactures to provide full color
rotating ball display, which was the groundwork of the first e- capability.
paper. Xerox's concept in the early 70s was the “PAPERLESS”
office. However, more papers were used after the widespread of Invented by Xerox at Xerox PARC, e-paper is made from a
personal computers. Computer monitors are uncomfortable to display technology. When voltage is applied to the surface of the
human's eye unlike ink on papers. Therefore, Xerox tried to sheet, the beads rotate to display either black sides or white
develop e-paper, an electronic based paper that closely resembles sides.
ink on paper. Yet, 35 years since the invention of e-paper, it does
IV. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ELECTRONIC AND
not enter the market.
PAPER DOCUMENTS
The reason why it took so long for e-paper to enter the market
In principle, electronic discovery is no different than paper
was because of the early Gyricon technology was expensive and
discovery. All sorts of documents are subject to discovery
had a poor resolution. Newer solutions to e-paper are
electronic or otherwise. But here is where the commonality ends.
electrophoresis front plane and cholesterol liquid crystal
There are substantial differences between the discoveries of the
technology. Though, no current display technology is paper-like
two media. The following is a list of discovery-related
yet. E-paper has to be thin, flexible and comfortable to human's differences between electronic documents and paper ones. We

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 International Journal of Trend in Research and Development, Volume 3(5), ISSN: 2394-9333
www.ijtrd.com
assume that a paper document is a document that was created,
maintained, and used manually as a paper documents; it is
simply a hard copy of an electronic document.
 The Magnitude of electronic data is way larger than
paper documents.
 Variety of electronic documents is larger than paper
documents.
 An e-document contains attributes lacking in paper
documents.
 The structure of e-documents may reach complexity
absent from paper documents.
 An electronic data is created by several individuals than
a paper documents.
 Electronic documents change faster, more frequently
and easier than paper documents.
 The redundancy in electronic documents is higher than
in paper documents.
 Electronic documents may be created by electronic
means while paper documents are created by humans.
V. WORK OF E-PAPER
E-paper comprises two different parts, the first is electronic link ,
sometimes referred to as the ”FRONT PLANE” , and the second
is the electronics required to generate the pattern of text and
images on the E-ink page called the ”BACKPLANE”. Over the
years, a number of methods for creating e-ink have been
developed. The Gyricon E-ink developed in the 70’s by Nick
Sheridan of Xerox is based on a thin sheet of flexible plastic
containing a layer of tiny plastic beads, each encapsulated in a
little pocket of oil and thus able to freely rotate within the plastic
sheet. Each hemisphere of a bead has a different color and a
different electrical charge. When an electric field is applied by
the backbone, the beads rotate, creating a two colored pattern.
This method of creating E-ink was dubbed Bichromal front
plane. Another such technology is electrophoresis front plane
developed by the E-ink Corporation. Electrophoresis front plane
consists of microns in diameter (about as wide as human). Each
microcapsule is filled with a clear fluid containing positively
charged white particles and negatively charged black particles.
When a negative electric field is applied, the white particles
move to the bottom of the capsule and are thus hidden from
view. When a positive electric field is applied, the black particles
migrate to the top and the white particles move to the bottom
generating black text or a picture. The brightness and resolution
of electrophoresis based E-ink is better than of bichromal-based
E-ink, but both are monochromatic in nature. To create color, E-
ink joined hands with the Japanese company Toppan printing
which produces color filter.
interactive applications(using fast moving menus, mouse
pointers or scrolling) like those which are possible on handheld
computers.
CONCLUSION
Today, paper remains the most popular document medium
because of its credibility, tangibility, ease of use, flexibility,
portability, and compatibility which has made it difficult to
replace. Even with the prevalence of computers and online
documents, the paperless office is more distant than when it was
proposed. With paper documents flowing at a faster pace than
ever, the need for more document management system become
increasingly inevitable. Sheridan (2007) believes that E-Paper
will eventually be able to make power hungry desktop displays
obsolete and help make heavy back-breaking textbooks
something school children might learn about in a history class on
their lightweight E-readers. Though new technologies are
misperceived as total replacements for old ones, when in fact, the
introduction of a new technology can simulate a synergy
between old and new (Liu and stork, 2000), we should
reconsider the argument to completely replace all paper
documents, and consequently, we predict a co-existence between
paper and E-Paper.
References
[1] Anderson,P., D.Nelson, P.Svenson, M.Chen,
A.Malonstrom, T.Kugler, M.Berggren.2002. “Active
Matrix Displays based on All-organic Electrochemical
Smart Pixels Pointed on paper. Adv Mater 2002.
14(20):1460-1464.
[2] Daimon.G 2005. “The First Watch that uses Flexible E-
Paper hit the Stores”. Retrieved 30/08/2010 from
http://en.akihabaranaus.com/15738/mis/the-first-watch-
uses-flexible-e-paper-hits-the-stores
[3] Dejean.D 2008. “The Future of E-Paper”.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/320085/the-
future-of-E-paper

Advantages and Disadvantages of Electronic Paper:

Electronic paper offers several advantages over printed paper.
Advantages of electronic paper include low power usage(power
is drawn when the display is updated) , flexibility, and better
readability than most displays .Electronic-int can be printed in
any surface , including walls ,billboards, product labels. The ink
flexibility would also make it possible to develop roll-able
displays for electronic devices.
A major disadvantage of e-paper technology is very low refresh
rate compared with other low-power display technologies like
LCD’s .This prevents products from implementing sophisticated

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