SBIR Phase I: vueDEW : Bistable, Electrowetting Display Technology

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will demonstrate the feasibility of a technology whose success will result in novel, ultra-low power, reflective displays that will be an environmentally friendly replacement for flat screen LCD displays in TVs, computers and mobile devices. The simple, yet ingenious, concept of this proposal transforms existing electrowetting displays from having to consume power in an 'ON' state, to consuming no power in either the 'ON' or an 'OFF' state. Layers of colored oil and water are sandwiched between two electrowetting surfaces. One surface is subdivided by hydrophilic barriers into sub-pixels. A stable 'OFF' state occurs when the light-absorbing oil layer covers the entire pixel. When that surface is made hydrophilic by electrowetting, the oil beads up, touches the other surface and transitions there. On that other surface the oil is confined to a single sub-pixel covering 25% or less of the total pixel, creating a 75% transmitting, stable 'ON' state. This simple, yet highly innovative, patent pending arrangement should result in reflective displays that 10 msec switching speed, 100% color conversion, sun light readability, and zero power consumption in either the 'on' or 'off' state. If successful this type of electrowetting reflective displays have the potential to impact several important facets of the $100 billion a year display market. Their predicted high reflectivity, ambient light readability, use of low cost materials and ultra-low power consumption make them potentially very well suited to e-ink applications such as the rapidly growing electronic shelf label market that is forecast to grow to about $1 billion by 2012. Other anticipated performance advantages, such as the 10msec anticipated switching speed, low switching power, 100% color conversion and sun light readability, make them contenders to replace LCD displays in the $20 billion mobile display market. The displays may find use in portable computers, helping provide the possible broader social benefits of more affordable, and more environmentally friendly, portable computers.