KR101008961B1 - Electronic books using electronic ink - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention has the effect of reducing the power consumption for the electronic book by displaying the contents of the book, especially the electronic book using the electronic ink using the electronic ink.

E-book, electronic ink, EL element layer coexist

Description

Electronic books using electronic ink

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to electronic books, and more particularly, to electronic books using electronic ink, which can reduce power consumption using electronic ink.

Electro luminescence light emitting elements (hereinafter referred to as "EL light emitting elements") are widely used as light emitting elements in various display devices and keypads of mobile phones.

Recently, a technique has been developed for manufacturing such an EL light emitting device as a thin film EL light emitting device by using various printing techniques such as screen printing or inkjet printing, and the thin film EL light emitting device on a thin film substrate by applying such technology. By printing in a predetermined fine pattern structure, it is possible to manufacture a variety of light emitting devices such as thin film EL display, electronic book and the like.

However, in order for the EL light emitting device to emit light, power has to be continuously supplied to the electrode contacted by the EL light emitting device, which causes a lot of power consumption.

In order to solve this problem, an electronic ink layer has recently been proposed, which will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1A and 1B.

As is widely known, the electronic ink layer I is charged with a white particle P1 or a black particle P2 filled in the capsule C according to the polarity of the power source to which the power source is applied. It uses the property of moving to the electrode side.

That is, for example, the white particle P1 is disposed on the side to which negative power is applied, and the black particle P2 is disposed on the positive power side (Fig. 1A).

Using this property, for example, when the black particle P2 is directed upward (FIG. 1B), the part expresses a specific picture or character.

In the case of using the electronic ink layer as described above, it is not necessary to continuously apply a power source, thereby reducing power consumption.

Since the electronic ink layer is shown in detail in a number of Korean patents, for example, Publication No. 10-2007-112943, Registration No. 844861, Registration No. 433227, and US Pat. No. 6,222,513, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.

An electronic book using the electronic ink technique as described above will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the electronic book 1, and FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram of the display apparatus 10 installed in the electronic book 1.

The conventional electronic book B supplies power to the electronic ink display unit 11 and the electronic ink display unit 11 that express characters or figures by the electronic ink layer as described above in one page of the book. Or a control unit 13 for controlling or controlling the electronic ink display unit 11 and the connection unit 12 for connecting the control unit 13.

By such a configuration, the exterior is provided with a conventional book form, but the inside is to express characters or figures by the electronic ink.

Meanwhile, the electronic book using the electronic ink layer has the following problems.

First, in the case of a conventional electronic ink layer, the device is attached to a substrate or paper using a double-sided tape that is already attached. In this case, a portion of the double-sided tape is peeled off to expose an adhesive layer, and then attached to the substrate or paper. There was a problem inconvenient to do.

Second, as shown in FIG. 4, since a power supply lead for electrically connecting the upper and lower electrodes and an external power source is printed on the upper surface of the substrate 1 together with the display device D including the electronic ink layer, power supply is inevitably supplied. If the area of the substrate 1 is increased or the area of the substrate 1 is constant because the printing area C of the conductive line is secured, the number of the display devices D is reduced to more accurately express characters or figures. There was a problem that could not be.

In other words, in the case where the display apparatuses D are arranged in large numbers, the intervals must be sufficiently separated in consideration of power supply lead printing, so that the area of the substrate becomes larger or the number of the display apparatuses D is increased. There was a problem to be reduced.

The present invention is to solve the above-described problems by laminating the electronic ink layer and the upper and lower electrodes on the printing paper by a printing technique to more easily attach the electronic ink layer as well as showing the characters or figures without a continuous power supply The purpose is to provide electronic books that can be done.

In addition, by forming a back electrode on the back of the paper on which the electronic ink layer is laminated to increase the effective area of the substrate on which the display device can be printed as possible to provide an electronic book that can more accurately express characters or figures There is this.

The present invention for achieving the above object is a printing paper provided with paper or synthetic resin or fiber, the lower electrode layer to be printed on the printing paper in turn, the electronic ink layer printed on the lower electrode layer, and on the electronic ink layer An electronic book using an electronic ink includes an electronic ink display unit including an upper electrode layer to be printed, and a control unit electrically connected to the upper and lower electrode layers to control supply of power.

The electronic book using an electronic ink further includes a conductive hole penetrating through the printing paper and a back electrode layer formed on a rear surface of the printing paper and electrically communicating with the upper electrode layer and the lower electrode layer through the conductive hole and energizing the control unit. There is another feature.

The display device further includes an EL display unit formed in one region of the electronic ink display unit, wherein the EL display unit includes a lower electrode layer sequentially stacked on the printing paper, a dielectric layer printed on the lower electrode layer, and on the dielectric layer. There is another feature of an electronic book using an electronic ink having an EL element layer to be printed and an upper electrode layer printed on the EL element layer.

As described above, by printing and using the electronic ink layer, the electronic ink layer can be easily attached and there is no need for continuous power supply, thereby reducing power consumption.

In addition, by forming a back electrode on the back of the paper on which the electronic ink layer is laminated, the effective area of the substrate on which the display apparatus can be printed is increased as much as possible to express characters or figures more precisely.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples.

The present invention will be described in more detail through the following Example 1 as an electronic book using the electronic ink layer as described above.

Example 1

As illustrated in FIG. 5, the e-book 100 to be described in this embodiment includes a printing paper 110 made of paper, synthetic resin, or fiber, and an electronic ink display unit which is sequentially printed on the printing paper 110. And a controller C electrically connected to the electronic ink display unit 120 to control power supply.

The electronic ink display unit 120 includes a lower electrode layer 121 printed on the printing paper 110, an electronic ink layer 122 printed on the lower electrode layer 121, and the electronic ink layer 122. The upper electrode layer 123 is printed on.

That is, in the case of the present invention as described above, the electronic ink layer 122 can be laminated on the printing paper 110 by a printing method, which is convenient.

Conventionally, since the electronic ink layer includes a double-sided tape and the like, the one side of the double-sided tape has to be peeled off and then attached to a substrate or printing paper.

However, according to the present invention as described above, the electronic ink layer 122 can be easily stacked on the printing paper 110 by simply printing.

In this case, the lower electrode layer 121 or the upper electrode layer 123 may also be stacked by printing in addition to the electron ink layer 122.

The print is printed by lamination by any one of pad printing, screen printing, inkjet printing, gravure printing, and flexographic printing; The pad printing, screen printing, inkjet printing, gravure printing, flexographic printing using a combination method is effective to be laminated.

On the other hand, the printing paper 110 may be provided with a printing paper 110 of a variety of materials, such as organic materials, such as fiber or synthetic resin materials, or inorganic materials, or organic-inorganic composite materials, including a paper material, Therefore, within the scope of not impairing the spirit of the present invention, such as coated paper or laminated paper provided with a material having high reflectivity or high permeability to visible light, or which has been coated or laminated on the printing paper 110. The printing paper 110 may be provided with paper of various materials.

The lower electrode layer 121 is formed of a conductive ink material made of silver of conductive fine particles, or a combination thereof with gold, zinc, graphite, copper, ITO, carbon, carbon nanotube, conductive polymer, and the like. It may be formed by a transparent or semi-transparent or opaque or highly reflective conductive ink material consisting of. In this case, the ink material of the lower electrode layer 121 may include a UV-curable photoinitiator in a wavelength band so that the lower electrode layer 121 may be cured by a relatively low-temperature UV curing method.

Of course, the lower electrode layer 121 may be cured by various curing methods in a range that does not damage the printing paper 110 by the curing temperature, such as a natural curing method or a low temperature thermal curing method.

The upper electrode layer 123 is formed of an ink material of a transparent or semi-transparent conductive material among the above-mentioned conductive inks in the lower electrode layer 121, and the ink material includes a UV-curable photoinitiator in accordance with a wavelength band, thereby allowing the upper electrode layer to be cooled by a low temperature UV curing method. Allow 123 to cure.

The upper electrode layer 123 may also be cured by various curing methods in a range that does not damage the printing paper 110 by a curing temperature such as a natural curing method or a low temperature thermal curing method.

The control unit C drives the electronic ink display unit 120 as described above to display the contents of the book as at least one of a picture, a letter, a symbol, a symbol, a mark, and a predetermined pattern, It can be used as an electronic book because it can display the main contents such as necessary pictures, texts, various study books and technical books.

That is, in the related art, an EL light emitting device is used, but in this case, there is a problem in that power consumption is consumed because continuous power supply is required.

However, according to the present invention, there is no need for continuous power supply by using the above-described electronic ink layer 122, thereby reducing power consumption.

Meanwhile, the controller C is electrically connected to the lower electrode layer 121 and the upper electrode layer 123, which may be implemented by a method such as a bus electrode (see the connecting part of FIG. 3), which is a well-known technique. Detailed description will be omitted.

Example 2

In the present embodiment, in the electronic book described in Embodiment 1, as shown in FIG. 6, the conductive hole 111 penetrating through the printing paper 110 and the back of the printing paper 110 are formed. It will be described that further includes a back electrode layer 130 that is energized with the upper electrode layer 123 and the lower electrode layer 121 through the conductive hole 111 and is energized with the controller (not shown).

Conventionally, a power supply lead is connected to each of the upper and lower electrode layers to supply power. (See FIG. 4).

As a result, if the area of the substrate 1 is increased or the area of the substrate 1 is constant, the number of the display apparatuses D is reduced so that the printing area C of the power supply lead is secured. There was a problem that can not be expressed more precisely.

However, according to the present invention, by stacking the back electrode layer 130 on the back surface of the printing paper 110 as described above, power can be supplied to the upper electrode layer 123 and the lower electrode layer 121 at one time. Less area is needed than before.

Therefore, printing paper of a smaller size than conventional ones (a conventional substrate) is required or more display devices can be attached in the case of printing paper of the same size, so that characters or figures can be accurately represented.

In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6, the electronic ink layer 122 is printed on the upper surface and the left side of the lower electrode layer 121.

This is because the upper electrode layer 123 and the lower electrode layer 121 is intended to be electrically insulated, as long as the electronic ink layer 122 has a different shape as long as this object is achieved, all of the present invention It belongs to the category.

In addition, in the present exemplary embodiment, left and right sides of the upper electrode layer 123 extend downward to the printing paper 110 while surrounding the electron ink layer 122.

This is because the upper electrode layer 123 and the back electrode layer 130 is intended to be electrically connected, even if the upper electrode layer 123 has a different shape as long as the object is achieved, all of the scope of the present invention Belongs to.

Meanwhile, in FIG. 6, the EL element layer 220 and the dielectric layer 210 are stacked on the right side of the electron ink layer 122.

This shows that the electron ink layer 122 and the EL element layer 220 can coexist, which will be described later in Embodiment 3.

On the other hand, the conductive hole 111 may be formed through a well-known tool, such as a puncher, a drill, laser drilling.

At this time, the lower electrode layer 121 and the bottom electrode layer 130 in the conductive hole 111, the lower electrode layer 121 and the bottom electrode layer 140 in the process of printing on the one side and the back surface of the printing paper 110, respectively The conductive ink material of at least one of the ink materials is filled in the conductive holes 111 of the printing paper 110 such that the lower electrode layer 121 and the back electrode layer 130 or the upper electrode layer 123 and the back electrode layer 130 mutually It may be a structure of the form that is cured in an electrically connected state.

Meanwhile, as shown in FIG. 7, the protective layer 125 is laminated on the upper electrode layer 123 to further protect the electronic book of the present invention or further include a resin reinforcement layer 124 laminated on the printing paper 110. It is also preferable.

Of course, as shown in FIG. 6, even when the back electrode layer 130 is provided, the protective layer 125 or the reinforcement layer 124 may be included.

On the other hand, the protective layer 125 is to protect each laminated structure including the upper electrode layer 123 from the outside, and laminated or printed using a transparent or semi-transparent resin material having a suitable strength, such as coating or lamination Patterning schemes for various protective layers 125 are included within the scope of not impairing the spirit of the invention, including those provided.

The protective layer 125 may have various colors on its own, or may have various functions of modulating light, so that light emission of the electronic ink layer 122 may be expressed in various forms. In addition, the protective layer 125 may be formed of a single layer, and may be applied in various forms in a range that does not impair the gist of the present invention, such as a configuration of stacking in multiple layers.

In addition, further comprising a reinforcing layer 124 of the resin material laminated on the printing paper 110 to prevent the ink material forming the laminated structure is absorbed into the printing paper 110, or the printing paper 110 and the lower portion It is desirable to reinforce the lamination performance between ink materials such as the electrode 121.

Example 3

The electronic book 100 to be described in this embodiment further includes an EL display unit 200 formed on one side of the electronic ink display unit 120 described above.

That is, referring back to FIG. 6, the EL display unit 200 is printed on the lower electrode layer 121, the dielectric layer 210 printed on the dielectric layer 210, and the upper electrode layer 123. And an EL element layer 220 positioned at the bottom of the substrate.

In the present embodiment, a case in which the lower electrode layer 121 and the upper electrode layer 123 in contact with the electron ink layer 123 are also shared with the EL display unit 200 is illustrated.

However, this is only an example of the upper and lower electrode layers, and the upper and lower electrode layers are all within the scope of the present invention as long as the upper and lower electrode layers supply power to the electron ink layer 123 or the EL element layer 220.

Meanwhile, the dielectric layer 210 may be formed of an ink material made of barium titanate. In this case, the ink material of the dielectric layer 210 may also include a UV-curable photoinitiator in accordance with a wavelength band by a relatively low temperature UV curing method. It is desirable to allow the dielectric layer 210 to be cured. Of course, the dielectric layer 210 may also be cured by various curing methods in a range that does not damage the printing paper 110 by the curing temperature, such as a natural curing method or a low temperature thermal curing method.

In addition, the material of the dielectric layer 210 may also use various materials that serve as a dielectric, unless barring the present invention, including barium titanate.

When current flows through the upper and lower electrode layers 121 and 123 in the dielectric layer 210, charges are distributed.

The EL element layer 220 is formed of a luminescence ink material, and the UV material also includes a UV-curable photoinitiator in accordance with the wavelength band. Thereby, it can be cured by relatively low temperature UV curing.

Of course, the EL element layer 220 can also be cured by various curing methods in a range that does not damage the printing paper 110 by the curing temperature such as a natural curing method or a low temperature thermal curing method. The EL element layer 220 emits light when electric charges are distributed in the dielectric layer 210 by the current flowing through the upper and lower electrode layers 121 and 123.

As described above, the laminated structure of the lower electrode layer 121, the dielectric layer 123, the EL element layer 220, and the upper electrode layer 123 may include pad printing, screen printing, inkjet printing, gravure printing, and flexo printing methods. It may be formed by UV curing or natural curing or low temperature thermal curing while being laminated on the printing paper 110 by at least one printing method.

Of course, the pad printing, screen printing, inkjet printing, gravure printing, flexographic printing may be laminated on the printing paper 110 using a combination of methods.

The EL display unit 200 may be further included to display the contents of the book by the electronic ink layer 122 as well as by the EL element layer 220.

Also, a control unit (not shown) for controlling the EL display unit 200 may be further included, which is the same as described above, and thus a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In this case, the battery may be installed in an appropriate area of the book including the back surface of the book. In order to prevent the thickness of the book from increasing, a battery having a thin film including a mercury cell having a relatively thin thickness may be used. It is preferable. Of course, the battery may use various types of batteries, such as general small batteries or fuel cells, within the scope of the present invention without departing from the spirit of the present invention, and may use various external power sources such as a home power source or a cigar jack power source of a car as a power source. .

As described above, the contents of the book can be displayed electronically by the electronic book 100 of the present invention, which will be described below with reference to FIG. 8.

As described above, the electronic ink layer 122 may be driven in accordance with the contents of the book such as a picture or a text, and black particles may float to the upper surface to display the contents of the book.

Of course, as described above, the contents of a book such as a picture or a character can be displayed by the light emission of the EL element layer 220, and can be used in combination with the electronic ink layer 122.

1A and 1B are conceptual diagrams for electronic ink;

2 to 4 is a conceptual diagram showing a conventional e-book

5 to 7 are conceptual views showing that the EL display unit of the present invention is laminated on printing paper;

8 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of use of an electronic book according to the present invention.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

110: printing paper 120: electronic ink display unit

121: lower electrode layer 122: electronic ink layer

123: upper electrode layer 210: dielectric layer

220: EL element layer

Claims (6)

Printing paper made of paper or synthetic resin or fibers; An electronic ink display unit having a lower electrode layer printed on the printing paper, an electronic ink layer printed on the lower electrode layer, and an upper electrode layer printed on the electronic ink layer; A control unit electrically connected to the upper and lower electrode layers to control the supply of power, An electronic book using an electronic ink, characterized in that it further comprises a protective layer laminated on the upper electrode layer. The method of claim 1, The conductive ink penetrates the printing paper and the back electrode layer is formed on the back of the printing paper. The conductive electrode is electrically connected to the upper electrode layer and the lower electrode layer. Electronic books. delete The method of claim 1, An electronic book using an electronic ink, characterized in that it further comprises a reinforcing layer of a resin material laminated on the printing paper. The method of claim 1, The lower electrode layer, the electronic ink layer and the upper electrode layer are laminated or printed by any one of pad printing, screen printing, inkjet printing, gravure printing, and flexographic printing; An electronic book using an electronic ink, wherein the pad printing, screen printing, inkjet printing, gravure printing, flexographic printing, and the like are laminated. The method of claim 1, Further comprising an EL display unit formed in one region of the electronic ink display unit, And the EL display unit includes a dielectric layer printed on the lower electrode layer and an EL element layer printed on the dielectric layer and positioned on a bottom surface of the upper electrode layer.

Images