Brief Summary:
Invention/Project: Production of Plastic Logic flexible displays in Russia (RUSNANO project)
Companies: Plastic Logic (international, with Russian roots), RUSNANO (state corporation)
Country: Russia (production) / International (technology)
Period: Investments and announcements ~2010-2011, active phase of problems ~2012-2015
Essence: A large-scale project to create a factory in Zelenograd for the mass production of innovative flexible (plastic) displays using E-Ink technology, initiated by RUSNANO with multimillion-dollar investments.
A high-profile failure of a high-tech project. Despite huge investments and ambitious plans (including Chubais's "school tablet"), the factory never reached its planned capacity and did not establish mass production of competitive products. An example of inefficient state investments, technological, and market misjudgments.
Creation History
In the early 2010s, the state corporation "RUSNANO," led by Anatoly Chubais, was actively seeking breakthrough technologies for investment. One of these was the technology of the company Plastic Logic, which developed unique flexible displays based on electronic ink (E-Ink), using a plastic substrate instead of fragile glass. It was decided to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in creating the most advanced factory for producing such displays in Zelenograd (Moscow) at that time. One of the flagship applications was seen as an "electronic textbook" or "school tablet" based on this technology.
Principle of Operation
The Plastic Logic technology is based on the use of:
- Plastic substrate: Instead of glass, making the display flexible, lightweight, and impact-resistant.
- Organic thin-film transistors (OTFT): Controlling the display pixels, printed on plastic.
- Electronic ink (E-Ink): As in regular E-Ink displays, the image is formed by moving black and white microcapsules under the influence of an electric field. This provides high contrast, readability in sunlight, and ultra-low power consumption (energy is spent only on changing the image).
This combination allowed for the creation of very thin, lightweight, unbreakable, and potentially flexible or even rollable displays.
Declared Advantages
- Flexibility and impact resistance: Ideal for wearable devices, educational gadgets, and industrial applications.
- Low weight and thickness: Significantly lighter and thinner than glass counterparts.
- Ultra-low power consumption: Like all E-Ink displays.
- Eye comfort: Lack of backlighting, readability like a paper book.
- Innovativeness: Creation in Russia of advanced world-class production.
- Potential for "school tablet": A lightweight, safe, energy-efficient gadget for education.
Why Did It Fail?
- High technology cost: The production of flexible displays on plastic turned out to be complex and expensive, which did not allow competing in price with mass-produced LCD and even regular glass-based E-Ink displays.
- Market misjudgments: The market for monochrome E-Ink devices (readers) was stagnating due to the explosive growth of popular color LCD/OLED tablets (iPad, etc.), which offered much greater functionality, although they lagged in reading comfort and autonomy. The "school tablet" on E-Ink never became in demand.
- Technological difficulties: Difficulties with scaling production, ensuring stable quality, and producing viable products at the new plant.
- Problems of Plastic Logic itself: The company also experienced difficulties on a global level in finding its market niche and commercializing the technology.
- Inefficiency of investments?: Questions arose regarding the efficiency of spending huge state funds invested by RUSNANO.
As a result, the plant in Zelenograd never reached full capacity, mass production of competitive products was not established, and the project brought significant losses to RUSNANO.
Ahead of Its Time?
The flexible display technology itself was undoubtedly ahead of its time and still has enormous potential (as evidenced by modern foldable smartphones). However, the attempt to bring *flexible E-Ink* to the mass market in the early 2010s, especially with a focus on educational devices, turned out to be untimely and economically unjustified amid the tablet revolution.
Can It Be Revived?
The specific project of the Plastic Logic plant in Zelenograd in its form—no, it is closed. Plastic Logic itself underwent restructuring and continued to exist, focusing on niche markets (e.g., industrial sensors, smart cards). Flexible display technologies are actively being developed by other companies worldwide. Some developments or equipment from the Zelenograd project may be used, but it would be an entirely different story without a guarantee of success.
WTF Factor
The main WTF is the state's investment (through RUSNANO) of an amount comparable to the budget of a small city (hundreds of millions of dollars) in building a super-modern factory for producing a gadget ("school tablet") that turned out to be of little demand amid the emerging iPad era. This is a story about enthusiastically building a factory to produce dirigibles when everyone is already flying on jet planes.
The image of "Chubais's tablet" became a meme, symbolizing inefficient and out-of-touch state high-tech projects.