Plastic Logic is building the first commercial manufacturing facility targeted at flexible active-matrix display modules for ‘take anywhere, read anywhere’ electronic reader products. It will utilise Plastic Logic’s unique process to fabricate active-matrix backplanes on plastic substrates which, when combined with an electronic-paper frontplane material, will be used to create display modules that are thin, light and robust.  This will enable a digital reading experience that is much closer to paper than any other technology.

Plastic Logic “take anywhere, read anywhere” display using E Ink® Imaging Film

The Plastic Logic facility will produce display modules for portable electronic reader devices. It will have an initial capacity of more than a million display modules per year and production will start in 2008.

Visualisation of a flexible electronic reader product

Plastic Logic’s research shows that consumers are very reluctant to read on laptops, phones and PDAs even in this age of pervasive digital content.  Enormous amounts of paper are still carried around.  However, people are making less room in their lives for the weight and bulk of paper and are becoming more sensitive to the environmental impact of printing to read. 

The thinness, lightness and robustness enabled by the flexibility of Plastic Logic’s displays will, at last, enable electronic reader products that are as comfortable and natural to read as paper whether at the beach, in a train or relaxing on the sofa at home. Wireless connectivity will allow users to purchase and download a book or pick up the latest edition of a newspaper wherever and whenever they desire. The battery will last for thousands of pages allowing the charger to be left at home.

An electronic reader built around a Plastic Logic display module can be up to three times the screen area for the equivalent weight of a typical 6” electronic reader product available today (i.e. approximately 250g).  This is enabled by weight reduction in the display module and in the casing which no longer has to be engineered to be rigid to protect the glass backplane.

Plastic Logic’s printing-based process is much more easily reconfigurable than traditional amorphous silicon production lines.  This allows the display form factor to be dynamically driven by consumer preference rather than by the constraints of the manufacturing line.

Plastic Logic displays will enable products that will finally make digital reading a comfortable and pleasurable experience.