E Ink is the creator of electronic ink — the optical component of a film used in Electronic Paper Displays. Although futuristic-sounding, electronic ink is actually a straightforward fusion of existing knowledge of chemistry, physics and electronics to create this new material. It's so much like paper, it actually utilizes the same pigments used in the printing industry today.

While E Ink has several types of electronic ink, we became best known for our microcapsule technology. In this system, the electronic ink is made up of millions of tiny microcapsules, about the diameter of a human hair. Each microcapsule contains positively charged white particles and negatively charged black particles suspended in a clear fluid. When a positive or negative electric field is applied, corresponding particles move to the top of the microcapsule where they become visible to the user. This makes the surface appear white or black at that spot.

E Ink has several color products available.

E Ink also offers a three to five color product called E Ink Spectra, which is optimized for electronic shelf labels and point-of-purchase sale applications.

In addition, E Ink offers a one-color product called E Ink Prism, which is optimized for the Architecture market.

For full color, we have E Ink Gallery; and E Ink Kaleido in 4096 colors.

An E Ink display module supports numerous modes for updating the display. Different modes exist to support the different update requirements. Update times can be as short as 120 ms. for the entire display. However, because E Ink screens are bi-stable, only the regions of the screen that are changing require updating. Any pixels that are not changing do not require updating.

Using the faster update modes, E Ink screens can support animation quality video rates. A number of examples are available from customers that show examples of E Ink screens showing video. However, constant updates reduce the power efficiency of our ink systems. Current production modules do not support video rate updates.