Electronic paper with the whole rainbow of colors

With a thickness of less than one micrometer, with the ability to bend and while displaying the full range of colors of a standard LED screen, the new electronic paper consumes less than ten times the energy of a tablet computer, such as the Kindle. Thanks to the collection of these properties, researchers announced that they have succeeded in developing the practical basis for an innovative electronic paper.

[Translation by Dr. Nachmani Moshe]

Researchers from Chalmers University in Sweden have succeeded in developing the practical basis for innovative electronic paper. The results of their research have long been published in the scientific journal Advanced materials.

When scientist Andreas Dahlin and his research team placed conductive polymers on top of nanostructures, they discovered that their new combination was perfectly suited for creating paper-thick electronic screens. At the end of a year of research, the material has already been fully characterized - a new material that is less than a micrometer thick, flexible and bendable, and in addition, one that is capable of displaying the entire color spectrum of a standard LED screen. "The paper we developed is similar to a Kindle-type tablet," explains the researcher. It doesn't actually turn on like normal screens, but reflects the external light projected onto it. As a result, it works especially well in places where there is bright and clear light, such as outside buildings where the sun shines, this is in contrast to normal LED screens that work best in the dark. At the same time, the new device consumes only one tenth of the energy consumed by a Kindle tablet, which in turn consumes much less energy than the LED screen of tablet computers."

The performance of the device depends on the ability of the polymers to control the amount of light absorbed and reflected through the material. The polymers, which cover the entire area of ​​the substrate, conduct the electrical signals through the entire screen and create images with high resolution. The material itself is not yet ready for practical applications, but it constitutes a promising basis for further work. The researchers did manage to build and test an array of several pixels. These use the same colors red, green and blue which alone are able to create the entire spectrum of colors that appear on normal LED screens. The results so far have been positive, and now the researchers have to build a pixel array that covers an area similar to the area of ​​a normal screen. "We do work at the basic level, but the amount of time it will take to produce a finished product based on our material is not that long. Right now we need engineers to help us."

One of the failures that still exists today is the fact that the screen includes gold and silver, two materials that make production expensive. "The gold surface is 20 nanometers thick, so a large amount of it is not required," explains the researcher. "At the same time, today we waste a large amount of gold during production. We need to find a way to reduce the waste of gold or find another way to reduce production costs." The lead researcher believes that the best application for the new screens will be in well-lit places, such as outside buildings or in public places where information needs to be presented to the public. Such screens will be able to reduce energy consumption and at the same time replace signs and illuminated screens that present information, which are not electronic today, with more flexible screens.

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