“The ’paper’ is similar to the Kindle tablet,” said researcher Andreas Dahlin. “It isn’t lit up like a standard display, but rather reflects the external light which illuminates it. Therefore it works very well where there is bright light, such as out in the sun, in contrast to standard LED displays that work best in darkness.”
While the development is not yet ready for application, the basis is said to be there. The team has tested and built a few RGB pixels and the results are said to have been positive.
“We are working at a fundamental level,” said Dahlin, “but even so, the step to manufacturing a product shouldn’t be too far away. What we need now are engineers.”
One problem admitted by the researchers is their display features gold and silver, which would make manufacturing expensive.
“While the gold surface is 20nm thick,” Dahlin explained, “there is a lot of gold wasted in manufacturing. Either we reduce the waste or find another way to decrease the manufacturing cost.”
According to Dahlin, the technology could be suited to use in public places to display information. This could reduce the energy consumption, whilst allowing signs and information screens that aren’t currently electronic today to be replaced with more flexible ones.