eBook Reader Review – The Technology Behind the Display
If you are like me, you hate reading from a computer screen. The idea of using an ebook wasn’t even in the realm of possibility. That is, until I actually looked at one. Today’s eBook readers look very natural and are surprisingly easy on the eyes. In this article I am going to take a look at the technology behind today’s ebook readers.
Instead of using the common liquid crystal display (LCD) present in most handheld devices like smartphones, ebook readers use a new technology called Electronic Ink. Electronic ink is a proprietary material that is processed into a film for integration into electronic displays. E Ink Corporation developed this technology and produces “electronic paper” screens for many prominent ebook reader producers. Electronic ink is a combination of chemistry, physics and electronics to create this new material. The main components of electronic ink are millions of tiny microcapsules that are about the thickness of a human hair. Each microcapsule contains positively charged white particles and negatively charged black particles suspended in a clear fluid. When a negative charge is applied, the white particles move to the top of the microcapsule where they become visible to the user. This makes the surface appear white at that spot. At the same time, an opposite electric field pulls the black particles to the bottom of the microcapsules where they are hidden. By reversing this process, the black particles appear at the top of the capsule making surface appear dark at that spot.
This ink technology is then printed onto a sheet of plastic film that is laminated to a layer containing circuits. The circuitry forms a pattern of pixels just like and LCD screen that can then be managed by the ebook reader’s hardware.
This technology is present in many of the popular ebook readers on the market today.