Quantum Paper claims to revolutionize electronic display/paper industry

[Alexander Turcic]

It's a bit odd that we've never heard about them before, but here's a company that basically claims to have found the holy grail of the consumer electronics industry. Under the leadership of Dr. William J. Ray (the person to the right of the photo), Quantum Paper Inc produced an electronic paper that would put the company hundreds of light years ahead of its competition (read: E Ink). A quote from the CTO:

"It is one of the most important developments in printing in more than 10 years. The paper is a unique marriage between the relative simplicity and low cost of printing and the high technology of pixel-based electronic displays." He claimed it had the potential to replace mobile phone and computer screens, interactive billboards and high-definition TVs at a "fraction of today's cost".

This sounds sketchy as hell, but it doesn't end here. Quantum's paper technology offers full color capability, high resolution the equivalent of HDTV, flexibility (can be rolled), can display written text, pictures and television-type animations, can be scaled to billboard size and larger, has a low power consumption and long lifespan, with wide viewing angle, and is environmentally and electrically safe. OK, stop - we'll believe that when we see it.

[via PrintWeek and packagePrinting]

[CommanderROR]

could be interesting..if it's real.
But i'd prefer to see a prototype on that picture instead of two grinning old men...^^

[Alexander Turcic]

I know, that's the best I could dig out. Still better than only the company logo though

[CommanderROR]

I just remembered...I read about this quite some time ago...so maybe there is truth in this after all. I can't remember where the information was from, but i know I saw something about 6-12 months ago abouth a company that was making printable displays...could have been these guys adn maybe they have now reached "beta" with their products (or call it prototype stadium).

[CommanderROR]

http://www.gizmag.co.uk/go/4821/

could also be related?

[Mortex]

it's pretty neat I think they are still a long way from being able to subtantiate all these claims but it certainly is well under way and I do believe that the technology is capable of all this and more with some fine tuning. I have worked with some of the prototype and it does have a lot of potential

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

I look forward to seeing the first real applications.

[Alexander Turcic]

According to this article, Quantum Paper is near to market:

The recent conference Printed Electronics USA in San Francisco had a presentation by two people from the secretive company Quantum Paper. At the request of the company, slides were not released for distribution after the event and we can not display those images here. Quantum Paper is currently undergoing a name change, together with sister company Applied Printed Electronics Research, to Nth Degree, a name already used by other companies on the internet, as far as we can see.

Skill sketchy as hell, but we'll see (hopefully soon).

[edcculus]

Hi, I ran across your forum while doing some research on printed electronics. I am a graphic communications major and have been doing some research on this topic for the past 2 semesters.

I have had the opportunity to talk to Bill Ray on several occasions. He has presented here at Clemson and at the recent PLGA (Packaging and Label Gravure Association) conference in Miami this past March. This technology is real. It is not mature, and will not hit the market for another 10 years or so. The company has changed its name to Nth Degree Technologies Inc.

What you can look for in the near future (this summer) in the US is printed light on packaging. This already implemented in Japan and Australia.

Also, I know it is kind of hard to believe some random guy coming off the street, but I have actually held several of these displays. Sorry, I don't have pictures. If you visit Th old Quantum Paper site you can see samples of the packing and POP displays they are producing. It might not look impressive on the screen, but those are printed on a piece of paper. There are no LED lights behind the print. It is completely flat.

Well, sorry for the long post. If you want any more info on printed electronics, feel free to email me. I'm pretty sure my email is enabled for members. This is very cool technology. I am thrilled to be in the middle of it right now.

[mrdini]

Originally Posted by edcculus

Also, I know it is kind of hard to believe some random guy coming off the street, but I have actually held several of these displays. Sorry, I don't have pictures. If you visit Th old Quantum Paper site you can see samples of the packing and POP displays they are producing. It might not look impressive on the screen, but those are printed on a piece of paper. There are no LED lights behind the print. It is completely flat.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I had a look at some of the samples, and there's something I don't "get".

In the samples I saw, the image/design is static & doesn't change - the only thing that changes is the fact that part of the display is illuminated.

If that's the case, how does this differ from electroluminescent displays...? (Not doubting you or anything - just get the feeling there's something I'm missing)

[edcculus]

No, thats perfectly fine. Those samples are just an example of what printed light can do. They are more on the packaging/advertising side of things. The ad is printed with 4 color process, and sections are printed with OLED inks. The circuitry is printed behind the whole piece. In this application, they are no different than your typical electroluminescent membrane display. The big difference is that this technology uses OLED's while electroluminescent displays use a special conductive ink that emits light when electricity runs through it.

The future of this is printed displays. To make a display, you need red, green and blue pixels. You probably know the basics of that, so I wont go into detail. The long and short is that RGB pixels means an image. Hook that up to some kind of computer or interface and you can have animation. The samples I have seen are very primitive. I think one had words scrolling across. I forget what the other had. Right now, they are pretty dim and the picture isn't great. I'm sure he had better ones that he didn't want to go toting around to conventions.

Another great thing is that OLED's produce light. That means that they don't have to be backlit like LCD or plasma displays. They use a LOT less power.

Hope that clears some things up.

[moz]

Originally Posted by edcculus

I'm sure he had better ones that he didn't want to go toting around to conventions.

Normally companies work exactly the opposite way - they bring the best they have and talk about how they're moving to mass manufacture stuff like the hand-crafted gear they carrying. Unless they're saying "oh, I just grabbed these off the production line, how many million would you like", turning up with anything but their best is asking for trouble.

So I'd assume that low-contrast, low-saturation, weakly-lit displays is the upper limit of their capability based on what I see here. Sure, they might improve it, but if they are targeting packaging and posters that suggests that even they think computer displays are out of their range for the foreseeable future.

[edcculus]

Originally Posted by moz

Normally companies work exactly the opposite way - they bring the best they have and talk about how they're moving to mass manufacture stuff like the hand-crafted gear they carrying. Unless they're saying "oh, I just grabbed these off the production line, how many million would you like", turning up with anything but their best is asking for trouble.

So I'd assume that low-contrast, low-saturation, weakly-lit displays is the upper limit of their capability based on what I see here. Sure, they might improve it, but if they are targeting packaging and posters that suggests that even they think computer displays are out of their range for the foreseeable future.

Yes, you are right. This technology is far from being mass produced. He can do it in a lab, but there are some huge problems with printed electronics period, not just the displays for mass production.