Conductive absorption layer for flexible displays

1. A bistable reflective display comprising a substrate, an electrically modulated imaging layer, and a coatable color contrast conductive layer comprising an electronically conductive polymer and colorant, wherein the ratio of said polymer to said colorant is in the range from about 95:5 to about 40:60.

2. The bistable reflective display of claim 1 wherein said substrate is flexible.

3. The bistable reflective display of claim 1 wherein said substrate comprises polyester.

4. The bistable reflective display of claim 1 wherein said substrate comprises cellulose triacetate, also known as triacetylcellulose or TAC.

5. The bistable reflective display of claim 1 wherein said electrically modulated imaging layer comprises a light modulating material.

6. The bistable reflective display of claim 5 wherein said light modulating material is a chiral nematic liquid crystal material.

7. The bistable reflective display of claim 5 wherein said electrically modulated imaging layer comprises a polymer dispersed cholesteric liquid crystal layer.

8. The bistable reflective display of claim 7 wherein said polymer within which said cholesteric liquid crystal is dispersed is gelatin.

9. The bistable reflective display of claim 7 wherein said polymer within which said cholesteric liquid crystal is dispersed is water soluble.

10. The bistable reflective display of claim 1 wherein said electronically conductive polymer is polythiophene.

11. The bistable reflective display of claim 10 wherein said polythiophene is present in a cationic form with a polyanion.

12. The bistable reflective display of claim 1 wherein said color contrast conductive layer has a surface electrical resistivity of less than 10 4 ohms/sq.

13. The bistable reflective display of claim 1 wherein said color contrast conductive layer has a thickness less than 1.0 micron.

14. The bistable reflective display of claim 1 wherein the thickness of said color contrast conductive layer is less than 25% of the said electrically modulated imaging layer.

15. The bistable reflective display of claim 1 wherein said color contrast conductive layer has visual light transmission of ≦10%.

16. The bistable reflective display of claim 1 wherein said colorant comprises carbon.

17. The bistable reflective display of claim 1 wherein said color contrast conductive layer provides a background that is substantially neutral to the human eye.

18. The bistable reflective display of claim 1 wherein said color contrast conductive layer provides a background that provides a substantially neutral optical density such that there is variability of less than +/−20% from the mean optical density over at least 80% of the visible spectrum from 400 to 700 nm.

19. The bistable reflective display of claim 1 wherein said color contrast conductive layer comprises a combination of at least two nonconductive colorants which have different hues.

20. The bistable reflective display of claim 1 wherein said color contrast conductive layer comprises cyan, magenta, and yellow nonconductive colorants.

21. The bistable reflective display of claim 20 wherein said colorant comprises a pigment particle having a median particle diameter of less than 50 percent of the thickness of said color contrast conductive layer.

22. The bistable reflective display of claim 1 wherein said color contrast conductive layer further comprises a conductivity enhancing agent (CEA).

23. The bistable reflective display of claim 1 further comprising a transparent electrically conductive layer, wherein said electrically modulated imaging layer is between said color contrast conductive layer and said transparent electrically conductive layer.

24. A method for making a bistable reflective display comprising providing a substrate, applying a transparent conductive layer, applying an electrically modulated imaging layer to said substrate and said transparent conductive layer, and adding a color contrast conductive layer comprising an electronically conductive polymer and colorant, wherein the ratio of the electrically conductive polymer to the colorant is in the range from about 95:5 to about 40:60.

25. A bistable reflective display comprising a substrate, an electrically modulated imaging layer, and a coatable color contrast conductive layer comprising an electronically conductive polymer and colorant, wherein said color contrast conductive layer has visual light transmission of ≦10%.

26. The bistable reflective display of claim 25 , wherein said color contrast conductive layer provides a background that provides a substantially neutral optical density such that there is variability of less than +/−20% from the mean optical density over at least 80% of the visible spectrum from 400 to 700 nm.

27. A bistable reflective display comprising a substrate, an electrically modulated imaging layer, and a coatable color contrast conductive layer comprising an electronically conductive polymer and colorant, wherein said color contrast conductive layer provides a background that provides a substantially neutral optical density such that there is variability of less than +/−20% from the mean optical density over at least 80% of the visible spectrum from 400 to 700 nm.