UK invests in electronic paper

UK company Plastic Logic is investing £100 million to produce plastic electronics.

The production plant, which will be built in Germany, is expected to mass produce plastic electronics in 2008 - including for so-called “electronic paper”.

Electronic paper - also known as e-paper or electronic ink - has long been used as a term to describe portable devices that could replace books - storing handwritten notes, and displaying pages from books.

One difference between electronic paper and current flatscreens is that electronic paper can hold images even when the electricity is switched off - making them potentially less power consuming.

More significant, though, is that electronic paper is entirely built from organic components without the need for silicon.

This creates a product with greater flexibility with regards to compenent uses and applications.

Additionally, chipsets and circuit boards can be built using relatively simpler printing techniques than in conventional smei-conductor electronics.

However, the big limitation with electronic paper at present is that it cannot yet be reproduced on the same miniature scales of current silicon chips. Even the new German factory will only create structures millionths of a metre in size, as opposed to billionths in traditional semi-conductor chip manufacturing.

Overall, electronic paper is a technology that has been in discussion since the 1970’s, and while it is unlikely to replace books and newspapers in the near future, it is likely to develop a wide range of uses in future electronic devices.