Supplier and fabless manufacturer of display drivers and other semiconductor products, Himix Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: HIMX) brings next-gen color ePaper timing controller ASIC (TCON), the T2000 along with E Ink Holdings, Inc. (8069.TWO). E Ink is an originator, and commercial leader in ePaper technology.
The new TCON design drives screen updates at a faster speed with lower power consumption, supporting a broad spectrum of color ePaper technology platforms for eReaders, digital signages, and other ePaper platforms. The T2000 eNote handwriting function eliminates the need for a SoC, which simplifies the development process and enhances screen refresh speed to provide a smooth writing experience.
“The latest T2000 is optimized for color ePaper, significantly enhancing the display performance to deliver a superb user experience. The advancements enhance screen transitions and optimize system power consumption, while offering a handwriting feature that boosts the operational experience of ePaper products,” said JM Hung, Vice President of Business Center at E Ink. “We are grateful for the unwavering support of our long-term partner, Himax, in supporting E Ink’s commitment to advancing color ePaper technology by delivering high-quality ASICs. The synergy created from E Ink’s advanced color ePaper and the T2000 maximizes the potential of color ePaper across diverse applications and significantly enhances user interactions,” concluded JM.
The T2000 represents a significant advancement in TCON technology compared to E Ink’s predecessor TCON, the T1000, which was introduced in 2019. The T2000 integrates E Ink’s proprietary color imaging algorithm, which supports E Ink’s latest full color ePaper display technologies, including E Ink Kaleido™ 3, E Ink Gallery™ 3, and E Ink Spectra™ 6. In addition to delivering high-quality image colors, the T2000 processes color rendering more than ten times faster compared to the previous generation.
The jointly engineered T2000 incorporates E Ink’s exclusive handwriting processing unit, enabling seamless handwriting on eNotes without requiring a SoC. This innovation streamlines system development, boosts prompt display responsiveness by leveraging Himax’s distinctive pipeline accelerator technology, and results in a nearly lag-free handwriting experience on ePaper displays.
“We are delighted to engage in yet another collaboration with E Ink drawing on our decades of expertise in image display processing and TCON design to jointly create a new milestone in the color ePaper field,” said Pen Hsin Chen, Vice President of Image Processing SoC Operation Unit at Himax. “The chip architecture of T2000 is meticulously designed and customized specifically for E Ink’s color ePaper technology, delivering unparalleled performance and power efficiency. This opens up new possibilities for applications in eReaders, digital signages, and more, further demonstrating Himax’s commitment to pioneering advancements and offering state-of-the-art display technologies and solutions,” concluded Pen Hsin.
The T2000 TCON is a crucial component for color ePaper displays, responsible for generating and managing timing signals to drive the display and controlling the timing and duration of voltages for optimal display performance. Specifically designed for E Ink’s ePaper technologies, the T2000 features temperature compensation, ensuring precise color and image display under different environmental conditions. T2000’s supported interfaces include MIPI-DSI, USB 3.0, and SPI, enabling color ePaper devices to efficiently handle content data streams. Sequentially, using embedded hardware-accelerated image codec processing unit of T2000, the data streams are converted into mLVDS or TTL signal formats. This capacity allows the T2000 to support ePaper displays with resolutions up to 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) and frame rates up to 150Hz. Additionally, its MIPI interface has been enhanced to achieve a maximum transmission speed of 1Gbps, greatly expanding its application coverage.
ePaper is one of the most energy-efficient display technologies in the industry, consuming power only when updating the display. In devices incorporating ePaper displays, only a small amount of power is consumed from the semiconductor components. The T2000 ASIC deploys Himax’s tailored low-power chip design structures and utilizes advanced semiconductor process to create an ultralow energy chip. Additionally, the T2000 integrates a Himax DRAM controller that interfaces with LPDDR (Low Power Double Data Rate) for high-performance and low-power data transmission. These advantages result in system power consumption being less than 300 mW in active mode and less than 2 mW in sleep mode, significantly extending the battery life of ePaper products.
