IRIS Optronics FAQ
Color E-Paper
There are two key differences between the two technologies:
- ChLCD is a reflective display (requires ambient light to form images) and LCD is an active display (emits light to form images). The ChLCD does not emit harmful blue light into the eyes.
- The ChLCD looks clearer the brighter the ambient light is, while the LCD is not visible under bright sunlight.
Yes, ChLCD has a bistable nature that makes it an e-paper. It only consumes power when updating the display, and consumes no electricity when maintaining a static image.
A bistable display only consumes energy during refreshes but does not use electricity to maintain the same image on the display.
The operating temperature range of the current mass production ChLCD e-paper is -20~70°C. It is suitable for both indoor and outdoor applications. We continue to develop new materials with wider operating ranges for more flexible applications in the future.
Mass production sizes for ChLCD e-paper include 10", 13.3" and 27.6". Watch this space for bigger-dimension products in the future.
The ChLCD e-paper technologies come in different thicknesses for different sizes. The 10" e-paper is 2 mm thick, while the 27.6" e-paper is around 3 mm thick.
The ChLCD e-paper displays content by reflecting ambient light. Since it does not contain a light source, it does not emit blue light.
Cholesteric liquid crystal reflects ambient light to display images, so it looks clearer and more colorful in the sun or other bright environments.
We recommend turning on the light when reading an e-paper display screen at night or using an e-paper product with a front light.
The ChLCD e-paper is built to survive more than 50,000 refreshes in reliability tests. It can last more than 5 years of normal operation.
The time it takes to update color e-paper images scales with the size of the display. The 27.6" display has two refresh modes: the high brightness mode takes 4 seconds to update, and the colorful mode takes 9 seconds.
No, ChLCD scans to update images. It does not flicker.
UV-resistant features are added to outdoor ChLCD e-paper applications to improve reliability in the sun.
ChLCD e-paper can integrate touch features for interactive applications.
The power consumption of e-paper is related to the screen size. Larger displays require more energy to refresh content, but it does not use power when maintaining a static image.
Infinity Display®
The solar panel is embedded behind the ChLCD e-paper to generate renewable energy from ambient light that passes through the e-paper.
It only needs around one minute of direct sun exposure to store enough energy to refresh content.
Indoor lighting is usually dimmer with less energy. So an indoor Infinity Display® requires longer to store enough energy to update. It is recommended to use Infinity Display® facing a window to get sunlight exposure to shorten the charging time.