E Ink is enhancing its Spectra color displays with “E Ink Ripple,” a new e-paper architecture designed to eliminate flash-like transitions and expand the color range.
E Ink has made a breakthrough in its line of Spectra color panels. The e-paper manufacturer developed a technology called E Ink Ripple which is supposed to reduce page flashing and improve color performance. E Ink Ripple creates a wave-like transition effect, minimzing the irritating screen refresh effects and creating smoother display updates. Additionally, the new Waveform Driving Architecture enhances color mixing by using existing color particles to produce new shades.
Spectra 6, E Ink’s latest color panel line, has a refresh rate of 12 seconds. While the Ripple upgrade doesn’t reduce this rate, it does smooth the transition between images by eliminating flash-like effects during content changes – a definite pro for digital signage applications.
First-hand insights at DSS Europe 2025
Hui Lee, President of E Ink in Europe, will share more about E Ink’s latest breakthroughs at DSS Europe, which takes place May 21-23 in Munich, Germany.
In addition to page flashing, color performance remains a drawback of e-paper displays. Although the new development doesn’t match Spectra’s color ranges to LCD displays, it does achieve an improvement in regards to image clarity.
The “E Ink Ripple Waveform” architecture expands the color range of Spectra 3100 Plus, adding dark gray and light gray to the existing five colors (black, white, red, yellow, and orange), increasing the total to seven. These new shades create smoother edges in character rendering and enhance text clarity.
Spectra 6 upgraded to eight-color-system
For Spectra 6, which is the foundation for most e-paper signage displays, E Ink expanded the range of primary colors form six to eight. While the previous six-color system achieved a color gamut of 60,000, it still struggled to reproduce certain colors crucial for commercial applications. By combining the waveform architecture with a 3-bit processing chipset, Spectra 6 now supports eight primary display colors. Cyan, light green, and orange are added to the original six (red, yellow, green, blue, black, and white). This doesn’t fully solve the problem of color accuracy but doese enhance the depiction of shadow details and skin tones, reduce graininess and sharpen object edges.
E Ink is sourcing the T2000 chips for this new architecture from partners such as Fitipower, Solomon Systech, Himax Technologies, Novatek, Integrated Solutions Technology, and Ultrachip.
The company will showcase the technology at Touch Taiwan 2025 (April 16-18) and Display Week in San Jose, California (May 13-15). Demo videos are not yet available.
