Improving Electrophoretic Particle Motion Control in Electrophoretic Displays by Eliminating the Fringing Effect via Driving Waveform Design

Abstract

Electrophoretic display is realized by controlling colored nanoparticles moving in micrometer spaces via electrophoresis. The quality of information display is therefore affected by the unsynchronized particle moving speed and the mismatched electric signal according to the crosstalk of the electric field and inhomogeneous material distribution. In this work, we analyzed the mechanism of a fringe phenomenon that affected the information display quality of electrophoretic displays (EPDs). Electrical driving waveforms (voltage signals) are designed to reduce the fringe phenomenon. By using the optimizing driving waveform, we proposed that the fringe phenomenon is quantified as gray value that can be diminished by 25.5, while keeping a response time of 200 ms.

Driving Waveform Design with Rising Gradient and Sawtooth Wave of Electrowetting Displays for Ultra-Low Power Consumption

“…Figure 3 shows the conventional driving waveforms [9,10]. In order to display different gray scales in EWDs, it is necessary to apply a voltage sequence for driving the pixel, the voltage sequence is called as driving waveform [14]. The driving waveform is designed as PWM (pulse width modulation) or AM (amplitude modulation) for displaying different gray scales accurately in EWDs [15].…”

Understanding the mechanisms of electronic ink operation

“…As shown in Figure 2, researchers have utilized PWM to control the movement of electrophoretic particles, so that the spatial distribution of electrophoretic particles would be different. The grayscale was determined by the spatial distribution of the particles 13–15 …”

Editorial for the Special Issue on Micro/Nano-Chip Electrokinetics, Volume II

“…Song et al [ 21 ] reported a numerical study of the electric-magnetic regulation of the heat convection between an electrolyte solution and microchannel walls for potential applications to microelectronics cooling. Shen et al [ 22 ] demonstrated the use of optimized electrical driving waveforms to reduce the fringe phenomena in electrophoretic display. Zhang et al [ 23 ] reported an on-chip impedance sensor that is capable of detecting both rigid particles and soft droplets/bubbles in hydraulic oil in an inductive and a capacitive mode, respectively.…”