LG Philips unwraps coloured e-paper

LG Philips LCD colour electronic-paper screen

A team of boffins at LG Philips LCD has perfected the world's largest colour electronic-paper screen. 

The 14.1in screen can show 4,096 colours, and is flexible enough to be bent almost in two. It has a viewing angle of 180 degrees.

In-Jae Chung, chief technology officer at LG Philips LCD, said: "The potential applications for this display are incredible and will allow our customers to create new products that are convenient to use and save natural resources. This represents the next generation in display technology."

The technology uses thin-film transistors on metal foil rather than glass to allow it to flex, and includes a colour filter on the substrate to change the screen from monochrome to colour.

The screen itself is made up of coloured balls that rotate to produces images. As the balls use power only when the screen image changes, the technology has the potential to radically increase battery life and laptop portability.

The invention comes from the same team that developed monochrome e-paper in 2006.

While e-paper is handy in some applications, others in the industry have questioned its usefulness.

"We tried e-paper and it's true, you get great battery life," said Phil McKinney, chief technology officer at HP's Personal Systems Group.

"But the downside is that extended use can leave users with headaches from eyestrain. It is good for block lettering but not for electronic books."