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Liquavista’s Electrowetting Technology Offers Key Benefits to eReader, Display Fields

By David Savastano

The market for eReaders is blossoming, with more than 20 eReaders currently available and the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader making headway in the segment.

Even with the sales growth that has taken place, though, there remain some important hurdles ahead for manufacturers of eReaders. First and foremost, providing color is critical to consumers, as the present eReaders are limited to black and white. Improved readability is also important, as eReaders are more difficult to read in outdoor lighting.

There are a number of companies that are working on these challenges. Liquavista, an Eindhoven, Netherlands-based spin-off of Philips Research, has developed Electrowetting technology, a promising approach that may very well place the company at the forefront of the eReader marketplace.

Liquavista was formed in 2006, when Philips decided to divest some of its display research activities, including its Electrowetting technology. It is clear that investors see its potential: Four major PE investors are the shareholders of Liquavista: GIMV, out of Belgium; Amadeus (UK) ; Prime Technologies (The Netherlands) and the venture arm of Applied Materials, which joined the Liquavista team in October 2009.

“Liquavista and its Electrowetting technology has received and is continuously receiving a lot of interest from investors like Applied Ventures, as well from governmental institutions like Sentor Novem in The Netherlands,” said Guy Demuynck, Liquavista’s CEO. “It not only endorses the technology, but confirms the huge potential and opportunities of our displays for versatile use in consumer electronics devices.”

Demuynck is a recent addition to Liquavista. He has a strong foundation in the consumer electronics market; he previously was a member of the Board of KPN N.V. and a member of the Group Management Committee at Philips N.V., where he held the position of CEO of the Consumer Electronics Division. In this role, Demuynck was instrumental in turning a traditional vertical integrated business into an asset light company by using relevant in house competencies with key outsourced partnerships. He also managed the transition of Philips’ Consumer Television CRT business into the fast growing flat panel LCD market.

Electrowetting has come a long way since it was formed out of Philips, and Demuynck’s goal is to bring Liquavista’s technology to the market. The company had a promising start FPD International 2009, held in October 2009 in Yokohama, Japan, where Liquavista’s first active-matrix technology platform, LiquavistaBright, was showcased. LiquavistaBright offers outstanding brightness and high contrast in all lighting conditions, coupled to an intrinsic video capability, excellent legibility and functional freedom.

“Since the spin-off from Philips, including the transfer of the basic IPR for electrowetting, Liquavista has continued to work diligently to convert the technology to real 6" Electrowetting display demonstrators, of which we showed the color version at the recently held Flat Panel Display show in Japan,” Demuynck said.

Benefits of Electrowetting

Electrowetting involves modifying the surface tension of liquids on a solid surface using a voltage. By applying a voltage, the wetting properties of a hydrophobic surface can be modified and the surface becomes increasingly hydrophilic (wettable).

With Electrowetting displays, the modification of the surface tension is used to obtain a simple optical switch by contracting a colored oil film electrically. Without a voltage, the colored oil forms a continuous film and the color is visible to the consumer. When a voltage is applied to the display pixel the oil is displaced and the pixel becomes transparent. When different pixels are independently activated, the display can show content like a photograph or a video.

Electrowetting offers many key benefits to consumers. It produces colors, and is readable even in the brightest outdoor condictions. It is energy-efficient, and is almost entirely compatible with existing display manufacturing techniques and processes. The company reports that more than 90 percent of the manufacturing cycle uses standard LCD manufacturing equipment and processes.

“The Electrowetting technology that Liquavista developed addresses the consumer demands of an always readable display, even in the brightest outdoor conditions,” Demuynck said. “It has a much lower power consumption than a comparable LCD display: it is eight times more power efficient in reflective mode than LCD and three times better in the transmissive mode than LCD. Next to that, it has a roadmap to color via a color filter and has a full video capability, with high refresh rates.

“The display will have a reflectivity of R> 50% and a contrast ratio of more than 20%,” Demuynck added. “It is viewing angle independent. If required, the display can be transmissive as well.”

Heading to Market

Having a great technology is wonderful, but being able to successfully market the product is essential. Demuynck said that Electrowetting has been well received by the market leaders.

“Our technology has attracted huge interest from the major display makers, as well as from the international design and product creation units of the major consumer electronics brands, wanting to design this display technology in their product roadmap and architectures,” Demuynck said.

“We aim to have mass production of our displays by the end of 2010 or early 2011,” Demuynck added. “We are in discussions to partner with major display makers in the Far East, be it in Korea or Taiwan or China. We are partnering as well with other players in the value chain, from consumables to equipment makers, silicon providers as well content owners, wanting to publish their content on video and color capable displays, readable in all conditions and having a low power consumption.”

Liquavista has its eyes set on a number of markets, including eReaders, mobile phones, media players and other mobile devices. Demuynck believes that the future is in these technologies.

“We believe that electronic paper or printed electronics in all its forms – books, newspapers, magazines, educational publication or business use, etc. – will dramatically change how the consumer will read and consume data,” Demuynck said. “The packaged paper content will very much follow the music industry, in which gradually packaged content has been converted into digital, on line content. Dedicated eReaders will be the devices to display this content, and e-reading functionality will become more consumer friendly via e-paper displays, being much more comfortable to the eyes in all kind of mobile devices.”