e-paper market to hit $4.65bn this year

Author: EIS Release Date: Sep 28, 2022

The e-paper industry wil be worth $4.65 billion this year, says TrendForce, driven by its power conservation and low carbon advantages in products such as e-paper tablets, electronic shelf labels, and electronic notebooks.

 

The e-paper industry wil be worth $4.65 billion this year, says TrendForce, driven by its power conservation and low carbon advantages in products such as e-paper tablets, electronic shelf labels, and electronic notebooks.

 

The market will grow 48.1% y-o-y this year and is expected to reach $20.34 billion by 2026.

 

E-Ink is currently the largest supplier of e-paper modules, electronic ink films, and other related materials, as well as finished products such as electronic shelf label (ESL).

 

E-Ink’s biggest advantage, says TrendForce, comes from its alliances and partnerships with numerous manufacturers such as its partnerships with Qingyue Technology, Yes Optoelectronics, Jiangxi Xingtai Technology, and other e-paper module factories to develop and promote e-paper industrialization, technology sharing, and utilizing manufacturing and market advantages to expand the scope of e-paper application in the Chinese market.

 

In 2021, E-Ink announced the expansion of 4 production lines in its old Hsinchu factory from the initial 2 material production lines to 6 material production lines.

 

The capacity of the last production line will come online in 1Q23. In addition, E-Ink is currently planning to set up two new material production lines in its Hsinchu factory in 2024, with a production capacity equivalent to the total of the company’s three existing production lines. E-Ink also plans to build new factories in Guanyin (Taiwan) and Yangzhou (China).

 

e-paper products such as e-paper tablets and ESL are primarily composed of three parts: display module, wireless chips, and battery.

 

The internal structure of an e-paper display (EPD) module consists of electronic ink coated onto a layer of plastic film which is then attached to a TFT panel. This module needs to be controlled by a driver IC to form pixel graphics.

 

An e-paper TFT panel should be equipped with approximately 11 driver ICs. As e-paper continues to trend towards large-size screens, the number of  installed driver ICs should grow which will be beneficial for the performance of suppliers Fitipower, UltraChip, and Solomon Systech.

 

This is especially true for ESL driver ICs which is a market equally divided among these three companies, in general.