E-Paper Display Refresh Rate Reaches New Heights

Summary

E-paper displays are prized for their readability and low power use, but they’ve long been dismissed as too slow for everyday computing. Modos, a two-person startup with open-hardware roots, thinks it has cracked part of that problem with a development kit capable of driving an e-paper display at refresh rates up to a record 75 hertz.The Modos Paper Monitor and Dev Kit, now available for crowdfunding on Crowd Supply, combines standard e-paper panels with an open source FPGA-based display controller. While the kit provides enthusiasts and developers a complete package (with e-paper display, display driver, and hardware adapter), it’s also an entry point for experimenting with different e-paper displays.RELATED: How E Ink Developed Full-Color E-paper“I would say instead of our secret sauce, we have open sauce,” says cofounder Alexander Soto. “You don’t even need to use the panel we’re offering. You could use a different panel and still get [75 Hz].”E-paper at 75 HzMost e-paper panels update at a refresh rate of around 10 Hz or less. (E-paper is the generic term for screens that mimic the appearance of ink on paper—the most well-known brand being that made by the company E Ink.) Some displays don’t even quote a refresh rate and may require up to a full second to refresh. A better refresh rate means a display can show more frames each second, which in turn provides smoother, more lifelike motion. Modern digital video is usually delivered at 30 or 60 frames per second, which until recently was well beyond the reach of an e-paper display. This is an area where e-paper clearly lags LCD displays, which start at 60 Hz and go up from there.Modos is able to hit refresh rates of up to 75 Hz on a 13-inch e-paper panel with a 1,600 by 1,200 resolution. (a 6-inch e-paper panel with 1,448 by 1,072 resolution and the same refresh rate is available, too.) Bumping the refresh rate also reduces latency. That’s a key point, as it allows an e-paper display to be used in situations where ...