E Ink Starting To Show New Filter-Free Full Color Displays Aimed At Digital Signage Market

October 4, 2018 by Dave Haynes

Taiwan-based E Ink will be at the CEATAC trade show in Japan mid-month show off its new Advanced Color ePaper – call ACeP – which does full color at every pixel without the use of a color filter array, something used in its previous large format color displays.

The company says:

ACeP achieves a full color gamut, including all eight primary colors, using only colored pigments. The display utilizes a single layer of electrophoretic fluid which is controlled using voltages compatible with commercial TFT backplanes. The fluid can be incorporated into either microcapsule or Microcup structures.

The richness of the colors is achieved by having all the colored pigments in every picture element (pixel) rather than the side-by-side pixel colors achieved with a CFA. This eliminates the light attenuation, which can be quite significant. ACeP maintains the ultra-low-power and paper-like readability under all lighting conditions of regular E Ink ePaper.

So … I understood some of that. It’s like the ePaper we’ve seen, but without some of the lost intensity of colors that happened because of the filter set-up.

The display tech is not yet commercially available, but E Ink clearly says the initial target application for ACeP will be digital signage applications.

E Ink will be showcasing 32” and 13.3” units, with the smaller one planned as the first commercial product. Not sure about the use-case, but certainly full color is a nice leap forward from the monochromatic displays coming out these days for transit stop applications. Precision-color opens up the prospects for things like brands sponsoring the e-signs at bus stops and train platforms.

Also, of course, advertising.

The caveat here is, as always, is that E Ink displays are not doing video or motion graphics. They’re changeable static posters.

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