UK develops low-cost plastic wafer electronic paper

According to the British "The Times" reported on August 3, 2009, closely tracking the development speed of e-book readers such as Sony and Amazon Kindle, Cambridge University scientists have invested 120 million pounds and spend 10 years developing electronic paper smart plastics. It will be available within a few months. Its screen area is the same as that of A4 copy paper, and it can be curled. Its unique feature is that it replaces the silicon wafer with an inexpensive plastic wafer during screen production. The electronic paper is a touch-screen design. It consumes power only when the screen is in motion and needs to be charged only once in two weeks.

With the decrease in the cost of manufacturing the reader, it is expected that this technology will be widely used in the electronic newspaper field, and may also be used in notebook screens in the future. Nowadays, most of the print subscriptions for newspapers are still higher than those for downloading electronic editions. The monthly price for many newspapers such as The Times for the Amazon Kindle reading ranges from $6 to $15. John Redding, Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Times, said: “Now readers’ demand for newspapers that can be read on the Amazon Kindle is very strong. In the near future, newspapers will be able to present on more reading carriers. The advantage of plastic electronic paper is that the screen uses a plastic chip that won't break even if it falls to the ground."

The British plastic logic company that supports this technology research and development indicates that this new electronic paper will be launched in the United States early next year at a similar price to the Amazon Kindle, and the time to land in Europe will be slightly later, at the end of 2010 or 2011. Early this year.