Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. last month announced the development of a newly-enhanced color electronic paper (e-paper) that features what they say is the world’s highest-level color image quality. Press information from the company indicated that the new color e-paper was scheduled to be exhibited at Fujitsu Forum 2010, Fujitsu’s largest annual event in Japan, held May 13 - 14 at Tokyo International Forum.

To get the improvement, Fujitsu extensively redesigned the panel structure and image re-write methods of their previous-version color e-paper. The result is a contrast ratio of 7:1 (a threefold improvement) achieved by suppressing excess reflection caused by the scattering of incident light when displaying black. In addition, a newly developed driver control method yields an image re-write speed of 0.7 seconds for a 1024×768 image, an improvement of roughly twice the re-write speeds of Fujitsu’s previous color e-paper. This enables smooth image transitions and a color display quality that is claimed to be at the highest levels available for color e-paper. But remember, this is still a very low bar.

In addition, Fujitsu Laboratories developed a new liquid-crystal material with superior reflective characteristics that can reflect more incoming light, as well as widening the aperture ratio (the effective reflective region) of the display panel to minimize light loss, resulting in a white reflectance of 33%, which is 1.3 times brighter than the company’s previous color e-paper. The new feature-enhanced color e-paper employs a layered cholesteric liquid-crystal display (LCD) structure with an image memory function. It makes use of the reflective properties in each color layer, with the cholesteric liquid crystals reflecting a specific wavelength of light of red, green, or blue. Compared to conventional reflective color filter LCDs, Fujitsu’s cholesteric LCD method creates colors with greater vibrancy and brightness, according to the company.

While most e-paper applications, such as e-book readers, have been monochrome to date, Fujitsu Laboratories has been involved in the development and practical use of color e-paper for several years. In 2007 for example, Fujitsu Frontech Limited brought to market FLEPia, what they say is the world’s first portable information terminal equipped with a color e-paper display.

Fujitsu Frontech is scheduled to commercialize the new color e-paper technology this fall for the Japanese market. The company plans to continue with further development of its new color e-paper, and to apply it in portable information devices and other various applications such as public billboards and commercial advertising.

While these performance improvements are modest, the ability to support color images in an e-reader is a logical next step in the evolution of the devices. While we don’t yet a have a practical full-color e-paper display that can effectively reproduce video, it seems that may not be too far off, especially with increasing business and consumer interest in e-books.