Touchscreen and colour e-readers to be manufactured from 2010

Dan Rogers - 08 Sep 2010

Taiwanese e-paper developer E Ink is working with its customers on designs for touchscreen and colour e-paper.

Technology news website Digitimes reported that E Ink will supply colour screens to customer Hanvon for e-readers in Q4 2010.

The company has been working on integrating touchscreen capability into its e-paper following requests from end users.

Sri Peruvemba, vice president of sales at E Ink, comments: 'We had the capacity [to produce touchscreen e-paper] several months ago, but we chose not to. Our first goal was to evaluate the market, and make sure it was right for our customers.

'Until now there has not been the need, but with the markets we're pursuing there is now a greater need for [touchscreen capability], especially in the student market.'

The first devices will be manufactured before the end of 2010, says Peruvemba. While he mentions the academic market as a segment particularly demanding display interactivity, the first commercial uses of touchscreen e-paper are likely to be with existing end users. These include casual e-reading, other consumer electronics items and signage.

Integration

The company is developing its e-paper so that touchscreen technology is fully integrated, says Peruvemba.

'We found that there is a need for integrated touch capacity. Customers want it to be in the display itself, so there is no need for integration by a third party,' he explains.

This innovation also means that the display offers better quality.

'Unlike an LCD, if you put a touchscreen on top of an e-paper display it impairs brightness and we want to minimise that effect,' adds Peruvemba.

The fully integrated touchscreen also means interaction is more accurate.

Peruvemba notes: 'Sometimes with touchscreens you try to touch the letter 'a' and choose 'q' instead. With LCD there is a minimum thickness that distances the touchscreen layers, but with e-paper we have the advantage of an extremely thin display. We are bringing the touchscreen and display as close together as possible.'

Though touchscreen e-paper will initially supply the existing market, E Ink is keen to forge a new market in academic textbooks on the back of this technology.

'Now we have established the technology and got production volumes up and running, we're able to go and focus on potentially bigger markets for the long-term,' says Peruvemba.

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