We have developed new materials that lead to methyl meth acrylate monomer and styrene monomer to using polymerization method. The materials have a powder form and show liquid behavior. We call the "Electronic Bead". An our experiment, a positive-charged particle has TiO2, polymer and CCA(-), while a negative-charged particle consists of carbon black, polymer and CCA(+). The charged particles have electrical characteristic of white -10 uC/g and black 10 uC/g, respectively. Also, these particles have good fluidity by additive of nano-sized silica. Using these materials, we demonstrated prototype displays that have 320×320 array of pixels and 6-in-diagonal viewable image size, driven by passive-matrix addressing. The reflectivity shows about 30% even though our experiment is at the beginning point. Also, the panel has contrast ratio 6:1. We think there are many chances to improve reflectivity through modifying components of particle resin, mixture ratio of each particle, panel structure and so on.

We analyzed the movement and response time of charged particles according to particle-inserting methods to understand the variation of quantity of q/m of charged particles, which is a very important factor in electrical and optical characteristics of the charged particle type display, such as lifetime, response time, contrast ratio, reflectivity, etc. For our study we used white and black charged particles of which diameter is 20 ㎛, prepared pieces of ITO(indium tin oxide) coated glass substrate, and formed ribs on the glass substrates. The width of a rib is 30 ㎛ and the cell size is 220 ㎛ × 220 ㎛. As the particle-inserting methods, the white and black charged particles were respectively inserted into a front and a rear panel with a very small electric field and also the mixture of the white and black charged particles were inserted into a rear panel. As a result of the driving characteristics of charged particles, the factors about variation of quantity of q/m according to the particle inserting method was experimentally demonstrate, showing very different driving voltage, response time, the particle movement, etc.

The charged particle type display device is a kind of the reflectivity type display and shows an image by absorption and reflection of external light source. The charged particle is important factor for driving of the display and quantity of charge per mass of the charged particle determines the driving voltage, contrast ratio, response time, etc. But it is easy for the charged particles to be damaged in the putting process of the display and the damages cause lumping phenomenon of the charged particles. Because the lumping phenomenon makes high driving voltage, low quality of optical properties, short life time, etc, so the charged particles must be filled by stable putting methods. In this paper, we filled the charged particles into the panels by electric fields to improve the electrical and optical characteristics of the display. Also, we analyzed the driving characteristics of the charged particles according to the applied putting voltages.

We analyzed various forces affective to the charged particles in closed space, to explain the image degradation and lifetime-shortening phenomena because of particle lumping which is one of the serious problems in reflective displays. It is possible to predict the quantity of q/m which is the most important parameter in determining the optical and electrical characteristics, by calculating the image force and kinetic energy. For stable driving, the quantity of q/m must be in the defined range but it changes during the fabrication process, so we added the filtering process to solve this problem and obtained the well-defined nonlinear driving voltage coinciding with the threshold voltage. And we obtained the fully-driving property which prevents the particle lumping and decides the image quality and lifetime of panel from the optical characteristics and occupation surface of moving particles.

The charged particle type display is a kind of the reflectivity type display and shows an image by absorption and reflection of external light source, which has keep an image without additional electric power because of bistability. In this paper, we made a device whose cell gap is 56 ㎛ and also analyzed driving and memory characteristics by applied driving voltages. As a result, we found that the driving voltage and memory effect depend on q/m(charge to mass ratio) of charged particle. In this case of breakdown voltage, the devices showed degradation of reflectivity and memory effect due to irregular movement of overcharged particles. In addition, contrast ratio of the device varies with memory effect. Thus, we consider that device needs uniform q/m for improvement of electric and optical properties and memory effect.

A measurement method of the particle-based reflective display is proposed, estimated, and compared with reported method. The reflectivity measurement by previous studies is simply obtained by integrating sphere, but it has a limitation for the estimation of real moving particles because its data include surface reflection and incomplete attachment on electrodes. To get the number of real moving particles, the area by attached particles on the electrodes is calculated at microscopic signals. The moving particles on subthreshold voltage are observed and this fluctuational variation of surface on subthreshold voltage gives a tip to understand the driving mechanism. By this measurement we ascertained the relationship of a particle layer and real driving particles, and the feasibility of observation and estimation for moving color particles, which were measured by the reflectivity and CIE (Commission Internationale de I`Eclairage) system of color specification at previous studies.