Nemoptic licenses electronic paper to Seiko

Licence agreement

The French e-paper display company Nemoptic, of Magny les Hameaux, has licensed its BiNem (Bistable Nematic) technology to Seiko Instruments Inc, which will manufacture and sell the product.

 BiNem displays have the ability to retain data and images on a screen without using power. Energy is required only when changing the screen’s content. 

“We are very pleased that Sony, a world leading producer of liquid crystal displays (LCD), has chosen to license our technology,” said Philippe Méchanick, CEO. “The license agreement is further endorsement of the BiNem technology as a cost-effective solution for e-paper displays.”

Unlike other bistable technologies, BiNem is compatible with existing LCD processes and can be produced on existing manufacturing lines, without additional capital investment.  Nemoptic was spun out on the basis of BiNem patents filed in 1995 from work under the supervision of French Nobel laureate Pierre Gilles de Gennes in Orsay.

Sony is expecting a strong growth in demand for Electronic Shelf Label (ESL) systems, and is currently preparing its factories in Japan and China to start producing e-paper displays at a rate of 100,000 per month.

ESLs are electronic price tags used in supermarkets or other retail stores which can be updated wirelessly with a new price, product or promotional information from a store’s central computer. The current market of 20 million price labels a year is growing at a rate of 40 per cent a year, in response to consumer demand for better price labelling and more efficient inventory and promotional management at supermarkets.