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Plastic Logic

Plastic Logic is a spin-off company from Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory and specialises in polymer transistors and plastic electronics. The company was founded in 2000 by Professor Sir Richard Friend,[1] Professor Henning Sirringhaus[2] and Stuart Evans.[3]

Plastic Logic's flexible plastic display

The company develops and manufactures colour and monochrome flexible plastic displays in various sizes based on a new organic thin film transistor (OTFT) technology.[4][5] The headquarters of Plastic Logic is in Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Plastic Logic in Cambridge
Plastic Logic in Dresden

Plastic Logic opened the first mini-fabrication plant on November 11, 2003 in Cambridge, UK.[6] A factory for the mass-production of the display units was opened on September 17, 2008 in Dresden, Germany.[7]

Plastic Logic announced its first plastic screen device on November 30, 2004, to be used by Siemens Communications in their mobile devices.[8] This was followed by the announcement of an ereader called the QUE proReader. However by August 2010, they had cancelled the QUE proReader.[9] In September 2011 the company announced Plastic Logic 100 aimed to bring e-textbooks to Russian schools.[9]

In January 2011 it was announced that Plastic Logic will receive another $280m in venture capital: $230m into the equity of Plastic Logic from Rusnano and $50m from Oak Investment Partners, a multi-stage venture capital firm.[10] In May 2012 Plastic Logic revealed a ‘Plastic Inside’ strategy – selling its plastic back-planes, sensors and tags for customers to incorporate into other products.[11]

On May 17, 2012, Plastic Logic announced that they were abandoning plans to manufacture their own e-reader devices (focusing instead on licensing their existing technology), shutting down their US office in Mountain View, California, and reducing staff elsewhere.[12][13][14][15]

In July 2012, Plastic Logic demonstrated a flexible display that was just 130 microns thick, as well as revealing the world’s first flexible plastic display that can play colour video animation content at 12 frames per second (14fps in black and white), driven by OTFTs (organic thin film transistors).[16] Plastic Logic also demonstrated several product concepts including an ultra-thin e-paper companion device for a smartphone. This 10.7” super-light touchscreen pane for viewing of webpages and documents allows easier reading of news, ebooks, PDFs, presentations and other content - much more comfortably than on the screen of a smartphone.[17][18]

BBC Click, the BBC's flagship technology brand across TV and radio, featured Plastic Logic's technology in a special report on "going paperless" in July 2012.[19][20]

Contents

The Technology

Plastic Logic has developed a new plastic transistor technology (based on organic thin film transistors - OTFTs) that enables electronics to be manufactured on flexible or plastic sheets.[21] It is currently used to make monochrome and colour flexible plastic displays of different sizes. These daylight readable displays are ultra-lightweight, super thin and very robust with low battery consumption, offering huge advantages over conventional screens as they are extremely flexible with proven lifetimes of over five years and more than 10 million page updates.[22] The technology can also be used for non-display applications.[23]

Plastic Logic's technology was recognised by the FlexTech Alliance in January 2013, when the company won the FLEXI 2013 R&D Award for innovation in flexible display manufacturing. This was in recognition for the development of a scalable manufacturing process for integrating a colour filter array on a flexible plastic display. This process is of particular significance, since it could enable unbreakable, flexible display solutions with other media such as LCD and OLED.[24] Other companies recognised by the FlexTech Alliance included Corning, Inc. and American Semiconductor.

Plastic Logic Flexible Displays

Following the company's strategy change, Plastic Logic now develops and manufactures flexible plastic displays for third party end-devices. The displays are very thin and light[25] and because they are made of plastic, they are quite literally unbreakable and can enable robust mobile devices.[26] In March 2013, the readers of 'Elektronik' (one of Germany's leading magazines for the developers and industrial users of electronic products) voted Plastic Logic's flexible colour display "Optoelectronic Product of the Year 2013".[27][28]

Concept Designs

Since announcing the company's strategy change, Plastic Logic has worked on developing a range of innovative concepts, both on its own and with industry partners, in order to showcase applications and potential products using flexible plastic displays of varying sizes. One concept of particular note was showcased at CES 2013 in Las Vegas at the beginning of January 2013: PaperTab was the result of a collaboration between Intel®, Plastic Logic and Queen’s University, with the aim of revolutionising tablet computing.[29][30] Powered by a second generation Intel® Core™ i5 Processor, the PaperTab is fully interactive incorportaing flexible, high-resolution 10.7” plastic displays developed and manufactured by Plastic Logic and flexible touchscreens. The interface is gesture-controlled, allowing the user to change a view or action a command by bending a screen corner or tapping one screen on another.[31][32] And multiple PaperTabs can be used to seamlessly share data side-by-side, bringing the virtual desktop back to the user's desk and displaying media such as emails and larger images simultaneously.[33][34] PaperTab was hailed as one of the hottest gadgets on show at CES 2013 by many technology journalists.[35][36]

Plastic Logic has also showcased further concept designs enabled by plastic displays of various sizes. A larger display, for example, can be used as e-paper or a companion device for a smartphone.[37] Further uses include enabling a large form-factor, flexible and lightweight eReader.[38]

Together with TOPPAN Printing Co., Ltd., one of the world's leading suppliers of printing technology, Plastic Logic showcased the first large-area, flexible electrophoretic digital signage prototype in March 2013 at RETAILTECH in Tokyo, Japan.[39] The 42" prototype consists of 16 10.7" Plastic Logic monochrome flexible plastic displays, which have been tiled together, in a 4x4 configuration. As a result of the module's much higher resolution than standard glass-based, large-area electrophoretic signage (six times higher), it is particularly well suited for applications with close viewing distances.[40] The ultra-low power consumption of the displays is also a crucial factor for disaster-ready applications in areas prone to natural disasters, such as the post-earthquake society of Japan.[41]

Plastic Logic has also shown concept designs enabled by its smaller displays, such as wearable electronics for use in a range of applications and markets including sports, health and medical.[42][43]

The QUE proReader

The QUE proReader was an intended but cancelled first generation e-reader product from Plastic Logic. The final version of the product was presented during a public event at CES January 2010.[44]

It is based on an electrophoretic display, allowing electronic documents to be transported and read just like paper documents with the advantages of electronic paper (e-paper) like decreased eye-strain and low energy use.

It was intended to have a thickness of less than 7 mm, a form factor of 8.5" x 11" and a mass of less than 16 oz (453 grams).

It was intended to be able to display documents in formats for Microsoft Office (Excel, PowerPoint, Word), PDF, and others.[45]

After multiple delays, the product was cancelled on August 2010 without ever shipping, with the firm noting that "We recognize the market has dramatically changed, and with the product delays we have experienced, it no longer make sense for us to move forward with our first generation electronic reading product."[46]

Plastic Logic 100

Plastic Logic 100 was an "electronic textbook" which was intended for educational use. Its availability was announced by Plastic Logic on September 12, 2011. Beginning later that month, a shipment of devices was scheduled to be used on a trial basis in selected schools in Russia which were planning to be pioneering the electronic textbook program.

Plastic Logic 100 used the same plastic-based e-paper technology as was intended for the QUE reader. The device boasted a 10.7" glare-free, shatterproof, and anti-fingerprint display, as well as a touch-based UI.

The storage limit was 4GB and the device was running Windows CE on a 800 MHz processor. The battery was intended to last a week under regular use, which includes reading, underlining, and annotation of text.

Due to Plastic Logic's announcement of getting out of manufacturing business, heavy workforce cutbacks and the closure/restructuring of its various locations,[12] the future of this device is currently uncertain.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Plastic Logic chief receives knighthood". 16 June 2003. 
  2. ^ "Professor Henning Sirringhaus". 
  3. ^ "Chip innovator sets its sights high". 18 April 2008. 
  4. ^ "All-Plastic Electronics Power Flexible Color Display". 7 June 2012. 
  5. ^ "Plastic Logic Shows Off New 10.7 Color Display Screen". 4 September 2012. 
  6. ^ "Plastic Logic opens the world’s first Plastic Electronics Mini-Fab". Plastic Logic. Archived from the original on 15 December 2003. Retrieved 17 August 2010. 
  7. ^ "Plastic Logic Opens Plastic Electronics Manufacturing Factory in Germany". 17 September 2008. 
  8. ^ "Plastic Logic to develop flexible displays for Siemens Communications". Plastic Logic (Press Release). Archived from the original on 7 February 2005. Retrieved 17 August 2010. 
  9. ^ a b Walters, Richard (08-11-2010). "Plastic Logic abandons long-delayed e-reader". FT.com. Retrieved 17 August 2010. 
  10. ^ "RUSNANO Finalizes Investment in Plastic Logic". Press-release. 18 January 2011. 
  11. ^ "Plastic Logic goes for 'Plastic Inside' strategy". 16 May 2012. 
  12. ^ a b Fingas, John (May 17, 2012). "Plastic Logic shutters US offices, gets out of making its own e-readers". Engadget. 
  13. ^ "Plastic Logic Exits E-Reader Business It Never Really Managed to Enter". All Things D. May 17, 2012. Retrieved September 7, 2012. 
  14. ^ "Plastic Logic quits ereaders and turns to tech licensing". Slashgear. May 16, 2012. Retrieved September 7, 2012. 
  15. ^ "A logical step". +Plastic Electronics. August 24, 2012. 
  16. ^ "Plastic Logic offer in-depth look at plastic electronics technology". Printed Electronics World. 2 July 2012. 
  17. ^ "Plastic Logic flexible smartphone companion hands on". Slashgear. 28 June 2012. 
  18. ^ "Plastic Logic reveals smartphone display accessory concept at open day". Plus Plastic Electronics. 28 June 2012. 
  19. ^ "Showing the future for a paperless office". 12 July 2012. 
  20. ^ "BBC Click (BBC iPlayer TV programme - available to play in the UK only)". 8 July 2012. 
  21. ^ "Technology". 
  22. ^ "Plastic Logic CEO: E-readers are start of flexible displays revolution, not the end". 21 May 2012. 
  23. ^ "Plastic Logic also pursuing 'non-imaging' applications". 18 June 2012. 
  24. ^ "FlexTech Alliance Announces 2013 FLEXI Award Winners, Recognizing Accomplishments in Flexible and Printed Electronics". 31 January 2013. 
  25. ^ "Plastic Logic’s New Color Screen Looks Better in Person". 5 June 2012. 
  26. ^ "'Accident prone' Brits most likely to break smartphones". 24 July 2012. 
  27. ^ "Die Produkte des Jahres 2013 - das sind die Gewinner". 19 March 2013. 
  28. ^ "Plastic Logic wins award for innovative colour flexible displays". 15 March 2013. 
  29. ^ "Flexible E Ink Tablets Will Probably Be Neat Someday, But Not Right Now". 8 January 2013. 
  30. ^ "Revolutionary paper tablet computer reveals future tablets to be thin and flexible as sheets of paper". 7 January 2013. 
  31. ^ "PaperTab: The paper-thin flexible tablet prototype that wants to replace paper (video)". 7 January 2013. 
  32. ^ "Thin, Flexible PaperTab to Redefine the Tablet". 9 January 2013. 
  33. ^ "Plastic Logic Proposes a Futuristic Kind of Paper". 9 January 2013. 
  34. ^ "British company reveals ‘bendable’ tablet". 8 January 2013. 
  35. ^ "Tablet enthralls CES 2013 by treading thin line between computers and paper". 7 January 2013. 
  36. ^ "CES 2013: Hottest gadgets at the show". 10 January 2013. 
  37. ^ "Plastic Logic flexible smartphone epaper companion hands-on". 28 June 2012. 
  38. ^ "Discovery Channel". 9 January 2013. 
  39. ^ "TOPPAN and Plastic Logic to develop market for large-area, flexible EPD signage and showcase world’s first 42” prototype in Japan". 4 March 2013. 
  40. ^ "Plastic Logic unveils 42-inch flexible plastic signage prototype". 5 March 2013. 
  41. ^ "Plastic Logic role in post-earthquake Japan". 4 March 2013. 
  42. ^ "Plastic Logic shows off colour e-paper display smart watch concept: the future of wearable tech?". 26 March 2013. 
  43. ^ "Flexible display smartwatch in production via major sportswear manufacturer". 26 March 2013. 
  44. ^ Fried, Ina (7 January 2010). "Plastic Logic unveils its pricey Que e-reader". Cnet. Retrieved 24 May 2012. 
  45. ^ Plastic Logic - Frequently Asked Questions
  46. ^ Murph, Darren (08-10-2010). "Plastic Logic kills QUE, 'shifts focus' to second-generation ProReader". Engadget. Retrieved 10 August 2010. 

External links

(Sebelumnya) Plastic filmPlatform game (Berikutnya)