[|2eason]

Photonic Ink

Scientists in Canada have used photonic crystals to create a novel type of flexible electronic-paper display. Unlike other such devices, the photonic-crystal display is the first with pixels that can be individually tuned to any color.

To display a range of colors, pixels must be grouped in trios. In each trio, one pixel is filtered red, another is filtered green, and the third is filtered blue. Varying the intensity of each pixel within the trio generates different colors. But Arsenault says that these old systems lack intensity. For example, if one wants to make the whole screen red, then only one-third of the pixels will actually be red.

With P-Ink, it's a different story. "We can get 100 percent of the area to be red," Arsenault says.

This is a step forward, says Jacques Angele, a cofounder of Nemoptic. "The aim of these color-display technologies is to be comparable with paper. Unfortunately, the brightness of the [other technologies] today is limited to about 30 percent of paper."

"It's a spectacular innovation," says Edzer Huitema, chief technology officer of the Dutch firm Polymer Vision, based in Eindhoven. Even traditional screens, such as cathode-ray tubes, LCDs, and plasma displays, use three or even four differently colored pixels to generate color. "It's a major limitation for all color-display technologies," Huitema says. When the color of each pixel is controlled, not only does the color quality increase, but the resolution should also improve by a factor of three.

Currently, the P-Ink system can switch pixels in less than a second, which is on par with other e-paper displays. "We're still early in our development, and there's a lot of room for [improving] the material and optimizing its performance," says Arsenault.

Looks perfect to me.