E Ink Announces Next Generation Display Platform

E Ink Corporation, the leading developer and marketer of electronic paper display technology, announced the Q2 release of its next generation display technology, Pearl.

With Pearl, E Ink expands the capabilities of reflective displays, bringing electronic paper performance to the next level. With the whitest reflective displays in the industry, and a contrast ratio now approximately 50 percent greater than today’s products, text on Pearl “pops” from the page, enabling a reading experience most similar to reading text on printed paper.

“As the electronic reading market continues to expand, there are more opportunities for expansion not only in the eBook space, but also for eNewspapers, eMagazines and eTextbooks,” according to Felix Ho chairman of E Ink. “E Ink Pearl enables further adoption with a next generation product that is a more lightweight and eco-friendly product than ordinary paper, with less eye strain and longer battery life than an LCD.”

“The use of electrophoretic displays for eBook readers is growing rapidly. DisplaySearch forecasts that the market value in 2010 will be $837 million, and will grow by 44 percent in 2011, reaching $1.2 billion,” according to Paul Semenza, senior vice president, DisplaySearch. “E Ink’s new technology should continue to position them at the forefront of this market segment.”

The E Ink Pearl design builds on the current generation of Vizplex designs, which is used in millions of eReader devices today. Due to a unique and proven two pigment system that is extremely stable, the current E Ink products in the market today have demonstrated long life and high reliability, enabling a whole new class of consumer products.

E Ink has partnered with top tier semiconductor companies to provide a best-in-class ecosystem of supporting electronics products. Tier one semiconductor providers such as Epson, Freescale, Marvell and Texas Instruments have created integrated circuits that will support the Pearl platform. These ICs include display drivers and power management products (PMIC). With these partnerships, E Ink has continued to advance the state-of-the-art and provide design flexibility to product manufacturers.