China works out e-paper prototype

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, December 07, 2003

China works out e-paper prototype

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A different wallpaper every day in your house? It may soon be a possibility, as electronic paper and ink will soon make it easier and cheaper, just like the way you change the wallpaper on your desktop.

Researchers with the Southwest China Normal University announced earlier this week their success in building the country's first e-paper prototype, which combined organic transistors with an e-ink that could be sprayed at very low cost on virtually any material: plastic, metal, cloth and conventional paper.

E-paper, a small, ultra-thin, radiation-free screen that consumes little power and gives a dynamic display of massive information, was designed to imitate to the maximum advantages of conventional paper and ink: flexibility, low cost and the ability to be read using ambient light.

"By replacing conventional paper with e-paper, we can protect our ecological environment by cutting less trees and minimizing pollution brought by the traditional paper mills," said Prof. Fu Xiangkai with the university's Applied Chemistry Institute.

E-paper could be used widely in publication, advertising, commerce and many other sectors and would "make your life easier and more colorful," said Fu, head of the research team.

"You can bring a library with you all the time when newspapers, magazines, textbooks and novels are 'printed' on a portable little screen," he said. "And you'll have clothes, dresses, walls and decoration papers in richer colors."

Fu and his colleagues are seeking business partners who are expected to translate the state-of-the-art technology into end products at an earlier date.

The e-paper technology was first developed by the US-based Xerox Corp. in the 1970s. In 2000, the American E-Ink Corp. worked out the world's first e-paper prototype in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

More than 10 e-paper prototypes are now available in the global market, and are used mainly in the advertising sector.

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