Electronic displays have always had to strike a balance between readability, power consumption and the ability to display high frame rates. Now a new design could change that, cutting power consumption drastically.

It's called "zero power design." It uses a combination of reflective electrodes and ambient light to offer the speed and color saturation users demand. The new design is the brainchild of a team from the University of Cincinnati, Gamma Dynamics, Dupont and Sun Chemical.

In a conventional, black-and-white e-reader display the pixels are either black or white pigment. The pigment is charged and moves to either the top or bottom layer of the display. The images are grayscale and the process is slow, but it requires little power, and can be read in typical daylight. Color liquid crystal displays, such as an iPad's, operate on a similar principle but they are lit from the back, and use red, green and blue pigments. They can operate faster than e-readers, but the power consumption is high.
 The new design solves those problems because the reflective part of the display is between the layers of oil and pigment dispersion fluid. The reflected light makes the display brighter and color-saturated, obviating the need for a backlight.

"When light is coming down through top substrate, it goes through one fluid and then hits the electrode which then reflects light back into of viewer," explains John Rudolph, Gamma Dynamics president. He says the second liquid becomes totally hidden, which allows for grayscale images to be produced through the positioning of the fluids.

"Conventional wisdom says you can't have it all with electronic devices: speed, brightness and low-cost manufacturing. That's going to change with the introduction of this new discovery into the market. This idea has been in the works for a while, but we did not start really pushing the project until we thought we could make it manufacturable," said Jason Heikenfeld, lead researcher on the project and associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Cincinnati.

Many research teams have been working on something like this, but this is the first display of its kind that is close to production. Rudolph says the parts for this technology are currently available and the researchers are looking to start limited production in 2012. He said there are many uses other than e-readers.

One area is in stores, to replace the typical LCD displays used now. "It's brighter, more readable and display more color. It will attract people's eyes better," Rudolph said.