Happy Halloween everyone.

We have a great and timely panel discussion on Solid State backlights for LCD panels, lined up next week at MIT. Four industry thought leaders will be joining us. We expect that the audience and SID officers will also actively participate. Please bring your questions and plan on attending.

I will sadly be traveling next week, but the rest of SID New England team is looking forward to seeing you there.

Brad

SID-NE Panel Discussion
Solid State Backlight Units for LCD

Panelists:
Jed Dorsheimer - Principal, Sr. Analyst at Canaccord Adams
Reed Killion - CEO of UniPixel
Alexei Erchak - CTO of Luminus Devices
Zane Coleman - VP of Technology of FusionOptix

Location:
MIT Haus Room, 36-428, 60 Vassar St., Cambridge, MA 02139

Logistics:
Thursday November 8, 2007
Pizza and drinks start at 6:30pm
Panel starts at 7pm

Parking:
The East Lot (on Main Street between Vassar and Ames Street) is open after 6:00PM. Vassar and Albany Streets have parking, as well as at the Bank of America lot (free after 4pm) on the corner of Mass Ave. and Vassar St.
http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?selection=P9&Parking=go

Background:
The current display market is growing at an explosive rate, raising the importance of LCD back light units (BLUs) which represent anywhere from 10-35% of LCD cost of goods. Just a few years ago 100% of BLUs utilized cold cathode fluorescent (CCFL) light sources, but as of today a large number have already shifted to light emitting diodes (LEDs) - by some reports 100% of LCD displays <4" in diagonal. LCDs incorporating LED BLUs have advantages such as a high color gamut, high contrast ratio, slimness, and environmental friendliness; hence, LED BLUs are predicted to take a very important role in LCD product competitiveness in the near future.

However, there are a number of challenges for LED BLUs. Some LED BLU-based products have hit the market, but most of them are still having numerous problems with performance and pricing, and notably, some products which have been launched in haste prior to technology perfection have not met expectations of consumers who were deeply interested in the LED BLU color capability. LED BLUs are predicted to offer attractive prices with diverse performance benefits that cannot be achieved with CCFL BLUs, and starting with notebook PC this year, the LED BLU market will probably expand to monitor and TV segments next year. This panel discussion will seek to shed light both on how far LED-BLUs have come to date and the challenges of the near future.

- Presentation Overview -

Electronics based on oxide thin film transistors (TFTs) offer an attractive alternative to amorphous Si or organic-based TFTs for large area and active matrix display applications. In 2004 Nomura et al. first reported (1) high-mobility, flexible, transparent thin film transistors (TTFTs) fabricated on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates at room temperature using pulse laser deposition. Since then, a new class of high performance TTFT channel materials have emerged that are based on heavy metal oxides with cations that have (n-1)d10ns0 (n ³4) electronic configuration. At Brown, we have explored the use of amorphous Indium Zinc oxide for room temperature fabrication of TTFT’s and have reported depletion mode, n-channel, field-effect devices with saturation mobility of better than 20 cm2/V sec. The transport properties of these amorphous oxide semiconductors are very attractive compared to amorphous Si since higher electron mobility (>20 vs < cm2/Vsec) will yield improved TFT switching speeds. Amorphous metal oxides also have the significant advantage of being easily processed at low temperatures using highly scalable dc magnetron sputtering on unheated substrates which allows the use of polymer substrates that are inexpensive, flexible, and lightweight. In this talk, I will present on on-going work at Brown on the stability, structure, and defect-doping of amorphous ZnO-stablized In­­2O3 and will report on TTFT devices fabricated from these materials using oxygen partial pressure during deposition to control carrier concentration enough to allow the use of the same material (IZO) as both the channel semiconductor and the source-drain metallization.

- About Our Speaker -

- Presentation Overview -

Multiple technology trends today coupled with camera feedback based warping create state-of-the-art seamless images to dramatically brighten the display landscape.

This presentation will include both a demonstration of the technology, showing several real world examples, and a discussion about the future where displays of any size and any resolution are not only possible but affordable.

- About Our Speaker -

Rajeev Surati, Ph.D.
Cofounder and President
Scalable Display Technologies

A founder and inventor, Rajeev has built several successful companies and been granted five patents to date including the core patent for Scalable Display Technologies projector/camera-based feedback technology.

Among Rajeev's many inventions are Enterprise Instant Messaging (for Flash Communications) and the distributed "application push over HTTP" system (for Nexaweb). As cofounder of Photo.net Corporation, he was responsible for running the first photo-sharing site on the Web. Today, this site remains the premier destination for high-end amateur photographers with over 25 million unique visitors a month. Rajeev was also cofounder of Flash Communications, and subsequently sold to Microsoft.

Rajeev Surati has received SB, SM and Ph.D. degrees from MIT in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

- Technology Presentation Overview -

LED displays utilizing quantum dots (QDs) as emitters offer several key advantages over more traditional OLEDs, combining the solution processability of polymers with the high efficiency potential of phosphors, all with the stability benefits of an inorganic emitter. While QD-LEDs are at an early stage in their development, the commercialization effort has already led to the identification of several considerations particular to QD-LEDs. This presentation explores material and design considerations for QD-LEDs, emphasizing areas in which they differ from OLEDs, and introduces some approaches to improve the performance of hybrid organic-inorganic QD-LEDs. The impact of these approaches will be presented along with an update on the state of the art in QD-LED performance.

- About Our Speaker -

John Ritter
Executive Vice President of Product Development and Operations, QD Vision

John Ritter has more than 20 years of experience in developing and commercializing new technologies and is responsible for all aspects of product development and operations at QD Vision. Prior to joining QD Vision in 2006, John was Vice President of Development at E Ink, where his responsibilities encompassed materials, process and product development and engineering. In this capacity, he successfully developed E Ink's front plane laminate (FPL) product, and transferred the necessary materials, processes and systems to E Ink's manufacturing operations and partners. He also worked closely with E Ink's direct customers (display makers) and end customers (set makers) to ensure that the FPL product functioned in the intended application.

Prior to joining E Ink in 2000, John had a long career with Corning Incorporated, where he held a variety of technical and leadership positions in development, engineering and manufacturing functions in the optical fiber, photonic components, flat panel display glass, and semiconductor materials businesses. He also has significant international business experience, including a three year work assignment in France.

John holds BS and MS degrees in Chemical Engineering from MIT.

- Technology Presentation Overview -

Today's microdisplay TV (MD-TV) manufacturers are faced with the challenge of designing products that can compete with flat panel televisions - a key to sustaining market share and brand equity. To succeed, they need to continually innovate and adopt the most suitable technology - one that allows them to differentiate their products and bring MD-TVs to the next level. The fact is that arc lamps, the incumbent light source in today's MD-TVs, have numerous drawbacks and are a major liability to this category's competitive position. Manufacturers require a better light source to advance their product lines and build the next generation of MD-TVs -- ones that offer:

• Longer operating lifetime
• Faster turn on
• Wider and richer color gamut
• Lower power consumption
• No environmental hazard

This presentation will highlight the most powerful LED in the world called PhlatLight (Photonic Lattice light), developed and manufactured exclusively by Luminus Devices, whose unique properties are enabling LED-based MD-TVs for the first time. The first LED MD-TVs using PhlatLight technology appeared in stores in August and are being manufactured by Samsung Electronics. Challenges and limitations of traditional LEDs, will be explained. The presentation will also describe how PhlatLight technology is being extended to backlighting large-screen LCD TVs.

- About Our Speaker -

Alexei Erchak
Founder & CTO
Luminus Devices, Inc.

Dr. Erchak founded Luminus Devices in August of 2002 after earning a doctorate in materials science and engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). During his research, Dr. Erchak designed, fabricated and tested novel light sources using photonic lattices. In particular, Dr. Erchak pioneered the photonic lattice light emitting diode (LED) technology that underlies Luminus Devices‚ PhlatLight(TM) technology. Dr. Erchak brings technical depth in compound semi-conductor devices, nanofabrication technology, condensed matter theory, and photonics. He has also done extensive intellectual property work.

- Technology Presentation Overview -

This talk will discuss the colorimetry of expanded color gamut displays. This will include a discussion of basic colorimetry, color gamuts of existing expanded color gamut displays, color encoding in video signals and the evaluation and comparison of color gamuts produced by different displays. The basic colorimetry section will focus on color difference formulas and real colors that exist in nature and need to be reproduced by a display in order to give a realistic image. The talk will pay special attention to the evaluation and comparison of different color gamuts and a proposed standardized method to evaluate expanded color gamuts.

- About Our Speaker -

Matthew Brennesholtz has worked in the display field since receiving his Masters of Engineering degree from Cornell University in 1978. He has worked on direct view CRT systems and projection systems based on CRTs, oil-film light valves, DMDs, LCDs and LCoS. In addition to system level work, he was involved in the design and testing of optical components for these systems. Currently he is at Insight Media providing consulting and other services to the display industry.

Mr. Brennesholtz is co-author of the book "Projection Displays," author or co-author of 15 SID and SPIE papers and holds 23 US patents. He has also presented numerous tutorials on display related topics to the SID, SPIE and at other venues. At Insight Media, he has co-authored reports on LEDs and Lasers in projection systems, direct view LCD backlight systems and low-cost projectors.

- Technology Presentation Overview -

Microencapsulated electrophoretic displays have moved from a few laboratory demonstrators to volume production of flexible direct drive and glass TFT active matrix displays. New advances in flexible backplanes will make active matrix paper-like electrophoretic displays a reality in the marketplace in 2007. Advances in electronic ink performance will also be described.

- About Our Speaker -

Dr. Michael D. McCreary
Vice President of Research and Advanced Development
E Ink Corporation

Michael McCreary is the Vice President of Research and Advanced Development of E Ink Corporation where his responsibilities include the creation of advanced technologies that will enable a new generation of reflective, daylight readable, low power, flexible displays.

Dr. McCreary is a 33-year veteran of the imaging industry. He previously held a number of leadership positions with the Eastman Kodak Company including General Manager of Kodak's Microelectronics Technology Division, a semiconductor business unit that develops and markets solid state image sensors for high performance applications. In this capacity, he was responsible for R&D, manufacturing, business development, and worldwide marketing/sales functions.

Dr. McCreary also serves as the Chairman Elect on the Board of Directors of the US Display Consortium and during 2005 served as a Board member of the Flexible Display Center at Arizona State University. He earned a B.S. with Honors in Chemistry from Principia College, a Ph.D. in Physical Organic Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and has additional coursework in electronics and solid-state physics from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

- Presentation Overview -

All regions of the world are quickly displacing sales of CRT televisions with flat panel televisions, and many regions now have firm plans to transition from analog to digital broadcasts. One result has been the creation of a new class of semiconductors that can receive, process, and display digital television signals on digital displays. The presentation will explore market trends and the impact that these trends have had on the design of "integrated digital televisions" and the semiconductors that are contained within.

- About Our Speaker -

Dan Eiref has 15 years of experience in semiconductor design and marketing. He is Director of Digital Television Marketing and Business Development for AMD. Dan joined ATI in 1996 as marketing manager for 3D graphics and shortly thereafter helped found what became the ATI DTV business unit (ATI was acquired by AMD in 2006).

Prior to ATI Dan worked first as a hardware design engineer on VAX and Alpha computer systems for Digital Equipment Corporation and later as a management consultant. Dan has a BS & MS in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Optically Efficient Displays and Solid-State Lighting Systems Using Anisotropic Polymer Films

Displays typically use near-Lambertian diffusing elements that inefficiently scatter light in all directions in order to increase the spatial luminance uniformity. By using highly efficient anisotropic scattering elements and controlled light redirection, the optical efficiency of displays can be increased while also increasing the resolution. Examples of efficiency improvements will be shown for LCD displays and projection displays. Other systems where inefficient scattering techniques are used can also benefit by using anisotropic polymer films such as the Advanced Diffusion Film from Fusion Optix. Further examples of the film use in the new field of solid-state lighting will also be illustrated.

Dr. Zane Coleman

Dr. Coleman has over 15 years experience with optical films and displays. His responsibilities at Fusion Optix include driving the technology tasks associated with Fusion Optix new product introduction (NPI) process and managing the development and strategy surrounding the company's intellectual property. Prior to joining Fusion Optix, Dr. Coleman had a 5 year career as a senior physicist at Motorola Labs. Whilst with Motorola, Dr. Coleman invented and developed new technology internally and in conjunction with outside vendors.

He worked separately with 3M, DuPont and Polaroid on development projects that each resulted in patented novel films that significantly improved the brightness and contrast of Motorola's displays. Prior to Motorola, Dr. Coleman worked with the startup company ImEdge Technology developing holographic screens and backlights for LCD's and biometric applications.

Dr. Coleman holds a Ph.D. in Optics from Loughborough University of Technology (UK) and a B.Sc. in Applied Physics from Georgia Institute of Technology.