E Ink Corporation

E Ink Corporation
Private
Founded 1997
Founder Joseph Jacobson, J.D. Albert, Barrett Comiskey, Jerome Rubin
Headquarters Cambridge, Massachusetts,
USA
Website http://eink.com

E Ink Corporation is a privately held manufacturer of electrophoretic displays (EPDs), a kind of electronic paper. E Ink is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was co-founded in 1997 by Joseph Jacobson (professor in the MIT Media Lab), Jerome Rubin (LexisNexis co-founder), Russ Wilcox and two of Jacobson's students (Barrett Comiskey and J.D. Albert).[1] Two years later, E Ink partnered with Philips to develop and market the technology. Jacobson and Comiskey are listed as inventors on the original patent filed in 1996.[2] In 2005, Philips sold the electronic paper business as well as its related patents to Prime View International.

E Ink has since partnered with various companies, including Sony, Motorola and Amazon.com, to allow for the development of products like the Sony Reader, MOTOFONE F3, Barnes & Noble nook, and Kindle, Hanlin eReader which utilize E Ink technology.

On June 1, 2009, E Ink Corporation announced an agreement to be purchased by one of its primary business partners, Prime View International (TPO: 8089), a Hsinchu, Taiwan-based manufacturer, for USD $215 million. PVI has since been renamed E Ink Holdings Inc. It is predicted that the purchase by Prime View will speed the development of color E Ink.[3]

E Ink's "Vizplex" technology is used by Nook, Kindle 2, txtr Beagle and Kobo Mini. E Ink's "Pearl" technology is claimed to have a 50% better contrast ratio. It is used by current Kindle models, Barnes & Noble NOOK Simple Touch, Kobo Touch, Sony PRS-T1. iRiver Story HD uses a display manufactured by LG.[4]

References

  1. ↑ "E Ink’s wild ride". Harvard Business School Alumni Bulletin. Sep 2009.
  2. ↑ US filing date 25-Oct-1996 5930026, Joseph Jacobson, Barrett Comiskey, "Nonemissive displays and piezoelectric power supplies therefor"
  3. ↑ E-Ink's Sale Clears Path for Color Kindle in 2010 from FastCompany.com
  4. ↑ iriver teams with LG Display on Story HD e-reader, bumps resolution to 1024 x 768 on engadget.com

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