Philips develops “e-paper” technology

Based on research results in the field of polymer electronics, Philips has begun developing mass production of ultra-thin, large-format, rollable displays. They consist of an active polymer matrix covered with a layer of electronic ink, placed on an extremely thin film. A Philips report on the current status of this technology was published in the February issue of the journal “Nature Materials”.
Lightweight, large-format, damage-resistant, and rollable displays are considered the future for mobile applications.

Thanks to their flexibility and minimal thickness, they can be integrated into everyday objects, such as pens. It is expected that the availability of these displays will significantly influence the development of electronic books, e-newspapers, and e-magazines. It will also drastically affect the services offered by third-generation telephony, which are currently limited by fragile, heavy, and rigid laptop displays or small, low-resolution mobile phone screens.

The Philips corporation is keen to start serial and mass production of lightweight and flexible displays, which is why the Philips Technology Incubator has established an internal company, Polymer Vision, to carry out this task. Polymer Vision utilizes research results conducted for years by Philips in the field of organic material applications in electronics. The results of this research also form the basis for existing RFID and active matrix technologies. One of Polymer Vision’s main tasks is to produce large-area thin-film transistors (TFT) from polymers.