AN0063: Driving Electronic Paper Displays (E-Paper)
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AN0063: Driving Electronic Paper Displays (E-paper) This application note shows how to drive an Electronic Paper Display (EPD) with an EFR32xG22-based Silicon Labs Wireless Kit. The application note makes use of an KEY POINTS EPD extension board made by E Ink and is connected to the xG22 Wireless Kit (BRD4182A and BRD4001A boards). The xG22 Wireless Kit with the E Ink panel is • Electronic Paper Displays (EPDs) are controlled wirelessly with another wireless kit. reflective and bistable, which means they rely solely on ambient light and can retain This application note includes: an image even when power is not • Simplicity Studio IDE projects connected. • Source files (in the project) • EPDs are ideal for applications such as e- readers, industrial signage, and electronic • Example C-code (in the project) shelf labels. • Software examples (in GitHub) • EPDs draw no current when displaying a static image, so they maintain a long battery life. silabs.com | Building a more connected world. Rev. 1.03 AN0063: Driving Electronic Paper Displays (E-paper) Electronic Paper Displays 1. Electronic Paper Displays Electronic Paper Displays (EPDs) are reflective and bistable displays. Reflective in this case means they rely solely on ambient light and do not use a back light. Bistable is the property of retaining an image even when no power is connected. EPDs are commonly used in e-readers, industrial signage, and electronic shelf labels. Their properties are ideal for applications which do not update the image frequently. Because the display draws no current when showing a static image, they allow a very long battery lifetime. 1.1 EPD Cell - Three Pigment Ink System The pixels in an EPD are made up of millions of tiny microcapsules, each about the diameter of a human hair. E Ink’s Spectra product line utilizes a 3-pigment ink system in a microcup structure. This ink was engineered specifically for Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL) and is offered in black, white, and red. This ink system works similarly to the dual pigment system, in that a charge is applied to the pigments and to a top and bottom electrode to facilitate movement. However, instead of using microcapsules, this system utilizes Microcups®, which are filled with liquid and sealed. For more info about the technology, visit the E Ink website. Figure 1.1. EPD Cells 1.2 Benefits of EFR32xG22 Because EPDs have the ability to draw no current, the current consumption of the MCU and the rest of the application becomes very low in the long term. The EFR32 flexible energy modes allow the MCU to always draw as little current as possible. In many EPD appli- cations, Energy Mode 4 can be used in which the MCU consumption can be as low as 170 nA. Memory is important to save frame buffers and images. The EFR32 has large memory options, both for Flash and SRAM. At the time of this writing, the largest options include 512 kB of Flash and 32 kB of SRAM. 1.3 Considerations Even though the EPDs draw no current while showing a static image, they require a significant amount of current while updating the display. The display update itself also takes a long time (typically 12 seconds for black and white, 18 seconds for red dots). EPDs are therefore not suited to applications that require a high update frequency. silabs.com | Building a more connected world. Rev. 1.03 | 2 AN0063: Driving Electronic Paper Displays (E-paper) EPD Extension Board 2. EPD Extension Board Figure 2.1. E Ink Display Extension Board with Connected 2.9" Display This application note makes use of the E Ink EPD extension board to illustrate how to drive an e-paper display with an EFR32 micro- controller. The EPD extension board is available for sale with the HULK Driving Board and the full schematics and documentation refer- ence code is attached to this document. Furthermore, these documents can be requested for free via the E Ink customer support. Doc- umentation and ordering information can also be found on their webpage. The extension board includes the necessary E Ink EPD driver components and a 16-pin header to connect to the MCU. It is based on the reference circuit, so it is an excellent base for new designs. The flat panel connector is compatible with most of the EPD panels. Additionally, the EPD panel-related flat connector is very sensitive to physical forces, like bending, twisting or stretching, so a temporary tool should be used during the development phase to prevent permanent damage. The signals required to drive the panel are routed to the 16-pin header. The kit comes without standard jump wires, so you'll need to acquire these cables for initial testing, or you can create a probe panel where the signal and power lines are connected between the WSTK and E Ink display driver (see the figure below). Table 2.1 shows how to connect the E Ink display driver board to the EFR32XG22-based Wireless Starter Kit. Figure 2.2. E Ink Driver and WSTK Connected silabs.com | Building a more connected world. Rev. 1.03 | 3 AN0063: Driving Electronic Paper Displays (E-paper) EPD Extension Board Table 2.1. Connection Table Note: The WSTK has power lines, such as GND and VMCU, that have dedicated pins on an extension header, namely WSTK pin 1 and WSTK pin 2. These pins can also power up the E Ink driver board. Based on the EPD, the driver does not have a "power switch" to shut itself down; therefore, if the previous power lines are used, then there will be no way to shut down the E Ink driver panel. It will constantly consume a significant amount of current, which is why GPIO pins are used to power up the EPD. For an easier interpretation, the following figures also describe the wires among the PCB boards. The pin numbers on the WSTK are highlighted. Figure 2.3. E Ink Driver Pinout Marking silabs.com | Building a more connected world. Rev. 1.03 | 4 AN0063: Driving Electronic Paper Displays (E-paper) EPD Extension Board Figure 2.4. WSTK and E Ink Driver Wiring silabs.com | Building a more connected world. Rev. 1.03 | 5 AN0063: Driving Electronic Paper Displays (E-paper) Driving an EPD with EFR32 3. Driving an EPD with EFR32 This chapter will explain what the MCU needs to do to update the EPD panel. All the information in this chapter is based on the docu- mentation released by E Ink. See this documentation for details about each step, including SPI commands and timing. 3.1 Chip-on-Glass Driver The EPD panels from E Ink come with an integrated Chip-on-Glass (COG) driver that controls the behavior of the panel. The COG has a 3-line serial peripheral interface (SPI) (or 4-line, depending on the configuration) that is used to accept commands from the EFR32. 3.2 Charge Pump When writing a new image to the display, the panel itself requires a large voltage across it to drive the pixels. To achieve the display without an external voltage supply, use a charge-pump circuit. The E Ink display has an on-chip oscillator, on-chip booster, and regula- tor control for generating VCOM, Gate, and source driving voltage for its proper operation. 3.3 Image Update Sequence To draw an image on the EPD panel, the MCU must: 1. Power up and initialize the COG. 2. Write the image data to the DTM1 and DTM2 buffers according to the desired color for each pixel. 3. Power off the COG driver. During initialization, the MCU communicates with the COG by sending SPI commands and must adhere to specific timings laid out by the COG documentation. The MCU should keep only one frame in its buffer memory: the frame of the new image. The following image update process happens automatically. It is driven by the EPD display-related COG. The E Ink display related COG has two buffers for the images: one for the new image to be displayed, and the old image currently visible on the panel. During image update, the panel is updated in four stages: 1. The current image is inverted. 2. The entire panel is drawn white. 3. The inverse of the new image is drawn. 4. The new image is drawn. During each stage, the same frame is written multiple times to the display. The number of times a frame should be rewritten is depend- ent on both the type of display and the current temperature. A colder environment makes the particles within the pixel cells move more slowly and therefore requires the panel to be rewritten more. If the application should work in varying temperature conditions, the tem- perature should be measured before writing to the display; however, E Ink display has a built-in temperature sensor, so this happens automatically. The EFR32 also has an internal temperature sensor that can be used. After the frame has been written, the COG should be powered down. This process also has a specific sequence of commands and timings the MCU must obey. During this sequence, the pixel registers are first cleared and then the charge-pump capacitors are dis- charged. After the power-down sequence is finished, all power to the panel can be removed and the image will be kept on the panel. silabs.com | Building a more connected world. Rev. 1.03 | 6 AN0063: Driving Electronic Paper Displays (E-paper) Driving an EPD with EFR32 3.4 Frame Buffer The COG expects each frame in a special format.