E-paper is on a scroll

Cambridge-based Plastic Logic is to work with US firm E Ink to produce what could be the nearest computing has yet got to electronic paper.

It has also signed a deal with Siemens to develop flexible screens for mobiles.

The company, which was spun-off from Cambridge University, has demonstrated a screen that can bend to a radius of 5mm, a format that would enable its use in mobile displays that scroll out like a roll-top desk - if the flexing can be done repeatedly.

Plastic Logic is understood to be working on A5-sized (14.8x21cm) standalone screens that could act as auxiliary displays for mobiles, and would at the very least be more robust than conventional screens using glass substrates.

It is expected that the Siemens deal will involve Oled or LCD rather than E-Ink screens, which have only four greyscale levels. The company says it will be able to offer 100dpi resolution E-Ink screens in 2005 and up to 150dpi the following year, when A4 (21x29.7cm) screens will also be available.

Plastic Logic, as its name implies, uses polymer rather that silicon-based semiconductors; one advantage is that the matrix of transistors required to drive screens can literally be printed where required. Click here for more details.

This means that screens can be made very cheaply. E-Ink screens, which retain their image without the need for battery-draining refreshes, are used in the ground-breaking but reportedly flawed Sony Libre ebook.

One criticism is that they are slow to refresh, but Plastic Logic's Cranch Lamble says the new screens will be much better in this respect.