1976, Panasonic suddenly stopped developing electronic paper and turned to the field of liquid crystal display. Due to the high revision rate of the electronic paper book products listed at that time, and the LCD calculator produced by competitor Sharp, Panasonic also invested in the embrace of LCD.
In 2007, with the release of the Kindle e-reader equipped with electronic paper books and ink screens by Amazon, electronic paper books were really widely known by consumers.
Electronic paper is a display technology, which has the characteristics of ultra-low power consumption, sunlight visibility, bending function, high resolution and ultra-wide viewing angle.
Different from ordinary displays, electronic paper uses electrophoretic display technology and relies on reflected ambient light to display images. The original interface can still be maintained after power failure, with ultra-low power consumption, similar to most functions of traditional paper, and the image can still be clearly seen under direct sunlight.
Because of its low power consumption and flexibility, electronic paper is widely used in e-books, ESL electronic shelf labels, outdoor billboards, smart wear, architecture and other fields.
However, looking back, the development of electronic paper was not smooth sailing. From the birth in 1960s to the large-scale application of electronic paper, the development time of electronic paper is not long.
In the last century, when LCD was dominant, let me see how electronic paper broke through the encirclement and became a forest.
Electronic paper or LCD screen?
The first electronic paper was not from E Ink, but from Matsushita, a Japanese electrical appliance company.
American Radio Corporation 1968 published the theory that "displays can be made of liquid crystal materials", which later became the basis for the development of liquid crystal displays.
After that, Panasonic began to fully develop electrophoretic electronic paper and applied for a number of patents related to electrophoretic technology. At the same time, another electronic paper technology "Gyricon" was also born in 1970, which was developed by Palo Alto, a famous xerox company, and important inventions such as graphical user interface, mouse and laser printer were born here.
However, in 1976, Panasonic suddenly stopped developing electronic paper and turned to the field of liquid crystal display. Due to the high revision rate of electronic paper book products listed at that time, and the LCD calculator produced by competitor Sharp Liquid was well received by the market, Panasonic also entered the embrace of LCD.
Therefore, the development of electronic paper technology has stagnated, and Xerox's Gyricon only lives in the laboratory.
Is electronic paper going downhill?
Until the 1990s, after more than 20 years of decadence, electronic paper technology finally ushered in its own spring.
1995, professor Neil Senfeld created E Ink in the media laboratory of MIT. Electrophoretic electronic ink technology is commonly known as electronic ink. The electronic ink is coated on the plastic film, and then the thin film transistor (TFT) circuit is attached, which is controlled by the driving ic to form a pixel pattern and create an electronic paper display screen.
Electrophoretic electronic ink technology
Later, they applied for a patent, 1997, and co-founded E Ink company.
Since then, electronic paper has begun to move towards the public's field of vision.
The road to commercialization of electronic paper
With the wave of electronic ink technology, IBM introduced the conceptual model of "electronic newspaper".
Conceptual model of IBM electronic newspaper
1999, at the largest newspaper exhibition in the United States, IBM showed an "electronic newspaper" that can read text and picture information through the electronic display layer, which attracted the attention of newspaper publishing industry all over the world. The New York Times and Washington post spoke highly of "electronic newspaper", claiming that this kind of electronic reading is revolutionary, and Businessweek also awarded the annual IDEA American Industrial Design Award to "electronic newspaper".
However, the network development at that time had not reached the level that could support this idea, and the "electronic newspaper" eventually became an inedible pie. However, it seems that the concept of customized information flow contained in electronic newspapers is the hot spot that major internet giants compete for after more than ten years.
IBM's "failure" did not slow down the development of electronic paper. In 2004, the commercialization of electronic paper finally ushered in a historic breakthrough, and Sony once again became the pioneer of the industry.
The world's first practical commercial electronic paper "LIBRIe" produced by Sony Company came out. This electronic paper with a price of 40 thousand yen attracted the attention of the whole world as soon as it was launched. More importantly, it has led the new development of electronic paper industry.
Electronic enterprises all over the world began to develop electronic paper products, and they all realized the great potential of the electronic paper market.
In 2007, Amazon released the first generation of e-reader Kindle. What Amazon didn't expect was that this electronic ink screen product was so popular that it sold out within five hours.
Kindle has become the iconic product of electronic ink screen.
On June 1 day, 2009, E Ink was announced to have been acquired by Yuantai, its main business partner, for more than 400 million dollars, which accelerated the development of electronic paper technology. And by 20 12, E Ink had acquired SiPix, one of the few competitors.
By this time, the vast majority of electronic paper products are using the technology of E Ink company. With about 90% market share of electronic paper, E Ink finally dominates the Jianghu.
The influence of IPAD? Electronic paper goes its own way.
In 20 10, Apple brought a revolutionary new product, which can watch videos, listen to music, play games and read e-books ... The experience it brings will be unprecedented. "
The first generation of IPAD was presented to the world, which opened the curtain of modern tablet computers. The color display and video fluency brought by LCD panel are incomparable with electronic paper. In the future, there will be more and more flat terminal devices equipped with LCD screens. Later, the IPAD even added a stylus.
The industry is worried, can the electronic paper market develop smoothly?
At the crossroads, E Ink resolutely chose to stick to its own path and give full play to the unique advantages of electronic paper.
Perhaps you haven't noticed, electronic paper has already been used in every corner.