Closest‐Packed Pixel Structure Preparation and Driving Optimization for Electrowetting Displays

ABSTRACT Electrowetting displays (EWDs) are a new generation of electronic paper displays, featuring low power consumption and a wide viewing angle. Owing to their alignment with green environmental protection and energy conservation concepts, the EWDs exhibit vast market potential. However, current EWDs face challenges such as high driving voltages, ink backflow, response speed and aperture ratio which need further improvement. Hence, this paper describes for the first time the preparation of hexagonal‐pixel EWDs based on the principle of 2D dense tiling and microfluidics theory at the corner. Compared with square‐pixel EWDs, the hexagonal‐pixel EWDs reduced the threshold voltage by 42.67% and the voltage required to maintain the maximum aperture ratio by 13.94%, while keeping the maximum aperture ratio unchanged. Moreover, based on ink motion theory in EWDs, a hybrid driving waveform combining exponential and alternating current (AC) is proposed for the prepared hexagonal‐pixel EWDs. Compared with traditional direct current (DC) and pulse width modulation (PWM) driving waveforms, this driving waveform reduced the brightness fluctuations from 22.374 and 20.726 to 3.110 in the ink driving stage, and from 4.211 and 25.316 to 1.827 in the stable display stage, respectively.