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Toshiba
Integrates SRAM into Low-temperature Polysilicon AMLCDs
August 2, 2000 – Toshiba
America Electronic Components (TAEC) announced the
development of the world’s first 2.1-inch reflective
low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) LCD with integrated
static random access memory (SRAM) at each sub-pixel of the
TFT-LCD array. Integrating SRAM at each sub-pixel allows the
power consumption in stand-by mode to be to half that of
current LCDs used in cellular telephones – to less than
1.4 mW when displaying still pictures with eight colors,
says Toshiba. And overall standby time is raised from 350 to
430 hours with a typical 3.3-volt, 650-mAh battery..
Toshiba’s SRAM technology
embeds multiple SRAM cells at each sub-pixel. The cells can
hold one bit of data per RGB pixel, allowing viewers to view
e-mail and other data without having to access the display’s
peripheral circuitry. Toshiba’s initial application of the
new technology will be in a 2.1-inch, 144x176-pixel cellular
phone display. Typical power consumption with moving
pictures of 4096 colors is about 25 mW.
Information: URL: www.toshiba.com/taec.
Three-Five
Systems Announces First Microdisplay Production Order
Tempe, Arizona, September 7,
2000 – Three-Five Systems, Inc. today announced it has
received an initial multi-million dollar production order
from Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Ltd. for Three-Five’s
LCoSTM SXGA microdisplay systems to be used in
rear-projection TV and monitor applications.
"We selected Three-Five
as our exclusive supplier of rear-projection SXGA products
because we believe Three-five’s microdisplay technology
represents the state of the art in the microdisplay field
for these high-volume applications," commented Mr. S.
S. Hong, Executive Managing Director and Vice President of
Samsung Electro-mechanics. "In addition, we think
Three-Five is the only company with the manufacturing
expertise to bring the products to market in the time frame
and in the volumes Samsung requires.
The purchase order is a
result of a development program the two companies have been
working on and a recently completely manufacturing and
supply agreement. Samsung Electro-Mechanics demonstrated
their product, containing Three-Five’s imagers, at the
IDMC 2000 conference and exhibition that concluding today in
Seoul, Korea. It will again showcase the product at Asian
SID (ASID), October 18-20, in Xi’an, China, and at Comdex,
November 13-17, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Prototype quantities of the
imagers and their supporting ASICs have now been delivered
to Samsung Electro-Mechanics. Pilot production is expected
to commence during the fourth quarter of this year, with
full production beginning in 2001.
Information: URLs: www.threefive.com
and www.sem.samsung.co.kr.
OLEDs on
Flexible Substrates and Phosphors for FEDs, PDPs, and
Inorganic EL Will Be Featured Topics as the International
Phosphor Conference Returns to San Diego
September 14, 2000 — The
Sixth International Conference on the Science and Technology
of Display Phosphors, being held November 6-8 at the
Catamaran Resort Hotel in San Diego, California, has a
concentration of papers, including the Keynote Address, that
discuss making displays – particularly the exciting new
organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) – on flexible
substrates. The international conference, which typically
draws about 300 phosphor scientists and technologists from
around the world, is sponsored by the Phosphor Technology
Center of Excellence (PTCOE), the U.S. Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the Society for
Information Display (SID).
The keynote addresses will be
The Future of Flat-Panel Displays by Robert W. Tulis
(Program Manager for DARPA’s High Definition Systems and
Flexible Emissive Display Programs) and New Opportunities
with the Advanced Technology Program in Electronic and
Photonic Technology by Michael Schen (Program Manager
for NIST’s Advanced Technology Program). Nearly 80 other
papers will be delivered at the conference.
"The information shared
at this conference is critical to a wide variety of display
developments because, in self-luminous displays, phosphors
provide the final, critical step in transforming an
electronic signal into a visible image. And in the case of
LCDs, backlight phosphors are the key to producing the light
that generates bright images with accurate colors,"
said Chris Summers (Georgia Institute of Technology), the
Conference Chair.
For registration and hotel
information, contact Mark Goldfarb, Palisades Institute for
Research Services, 411 Lafayette Street, 2nd
Floor, New York, NY 10003. Tel: (212) 460-9700; Fax: (212)
460-5460; email: mgoldfarb@pcm411.com.
Toshiba Signs
Multi-year, Multi-billion Dollar Deal with Dell
Irvine, California, Sept.
11, 2000 -- Toshiba America Electronics Components, Inc. (TAEC)
today announced that Toshiba Corp. has signed a
multi-billion dollar Strategic Alliance and Master Purchase
Agreement with Dell, the world's leading direct computer
systems company. This strategic agreement supports
development and supply of various components, including
memory, liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and storage products
to Dell on a global basis, and has the potential to be worth
approximately $5 over the next three years. As the
relationship develops, Toshiba and Dell intend to add other
products under the Agreement, such as batteries and color
display tubes. The agreement runs for an initial term of
three years, renewable in one-year increments.
This strategic alliance is
intended to create mutually beneficial opportunities for
Dell and Toshiba's respective products, and to create a
long-term technology alliance. Both companies anticipate
realizing time-to-market and time-to-volume benefits.
Additions to quality improvement, flexibility and
production/supply continuity benefits are also expected.
"This agreement provides
Dell a fast track to Toshiba's industry-leading products and
emerging technologies, covering a diverse range of key
electronic components," said Glenn Neland, Dell vice
president of worldwide procurement. "We need component
suppliers who can provide not only stable delivery of
products but who also can deliver the most advanced
capabilities for the next generation of enhanced computing
systems."
"We are very excited to
enter into this agreement with one of the most successful
computer systems companies in the world," said Takeshi
Nakagawa, executive vice president, Semiconductor Company,
Toshiba Corporation. "We look forward to helping Dell
capitalize on the significant global opportunities
anticipated for the computing industry."
Information: URL: www.toshiba.com/taec.
Covion &
SEL Cooperate to Develop Active Matrix-driven
OLED
Frankfurt,
Germany, September 1, 2000 -- The first high resolution,
active-matrix-driven OLED has been jointly developed by
Covion Organic Semiconductors GmbH of Germany and Japan’s
Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co. Ltd. (SEL).
Produced on
an experimental basis, the high-resolution VGA organic EL
display panel has its primary organic EL emission in white.
The peripheral circuits are driven by integrated polysilicon
thin-film transistors (TFTs), and the contrast ratio of the
panel is more than 100.
SEL’s role
in the cooperative effort has been OLED device and
TFT-driver development, while Covion developed the white
OLED containing thermally stable spiro materials. Small,
high-resolution AM-OLED panels will be applied in
head-mounted displays (HMDs) and a range of other mobile
items, including wearable computers and projection displays.
The device
features a VGA panel with integrated peripheral and a
white-colored OLED having a digital gray scale driven by
TFTs. But the gray-scale display is analog, and it
incorporates a novel driving method. SEL used its
applied-voltage time-control expertise to obtain smooth gray
scales by controlling the OLED’s light-emitting time. This
driving method became available for the first time by using
high-speed polysilicon TFTs via SEL’s established core
active-matrix driver manufacturing technology.
Information: Dr. Olaf Gelsen,
Technical Marketing Manager, Covion. Tel:
+00-49-69-305-16608; email: gelsen@covion.com.
Philips
Components Outlines Strategy for Growth; Matt Medeiros
Appointed New Components CEO
Amsterdam, The Netherlands,
September 15, 2000 -- Philips Components, a
division of Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands,
today announced its strategy for continued growth at a
financial analyst meeting in Amsterdam. At the same meeting
Cor Boonstra, Philips’ president and CEO, introduced Mr.
Matt Medeiros as the new president and CEO of the Components
division, succeeding Mr. Gerard Kleisterlee, with immediate
effect.
Matt Medeiros (44) joined
Philips in 1998 as CEO of Philips Flat Display Systems, a
business group of Philips Components. Prior to joining
Philips, Mr. Medeiros spent 15 years with Apple Computer and
NeXT, and with Allied Signal. Under his leadership, Philips
has become a leader in large and mobile flat displays. Mr.
Medeiros will report to Gerard Kleisterlee, Philips’ chief
operating officer and president-designate.
In order to strengthen the
Company’s presence in the United States, and in view of
Components’ high growth strategy, the division revealed
its plans to relocate its headquarters to Sunnyvale,
California, the heart of digital technology. Certain
corporate functions currently based at Components’
headquarters in Eindhoven will relocate to Sunnyvale,
involving between 10 and 15 positions.
Philips Components is already
the global leader in large LCD displays (23 percent market
share together with LG.Philips LCD), color television
picture tubes (18 percent market share), and mobile flat
displays (35 percent market share).
"We are announcing today
an investment of approximately $100 million into the rapidly
growing color display market for telecommunications devices,
of which we are the leading supplier, and the
fast-developing smart handheld and automotive markets. This
new group will operate in Japan under the name, Philips
Mobile Display Systems Kobe, K.K," Medeiros said.
"With continued focus on
high-growth areas, based on our current market outlook, we
aim to maintain the current compound annual growth rate of
more than 25 percent, and return industry-leading
profitability," said Kleisterlee
Information: Jeremy Cohen,
Corporate Communications. Tel: +31-20-5977213
Rainbow and
Philips Demonstrate "Plasma Killer" 37-inch
TFT-LCD SDTV at IDMC 2000
by Ken Werner
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Seoul,
Korea, Sept. 6, 2000 – At IDMC 2000 in Seoul today,
Rainbow Displays, Inc. and Philips FDS described and
demonstrated a video monitor built around a tiled display
consisting of a single row of three AMLCD panels. (See
photo.) The individual panels were in portrait orientation,
giving the entire display a landscape orientation. The
complete WVGA (852 x 480) display has a 37-inch diagonal and
is intended for SDTV applications.
Rainbow technical consultant
Peter Krusius said the company is almost ready to
commercialize the 37-inch unit, and that a 720-line unit is
coming "soon." The company will beat PDPs on price
for the SDTV panel, he said, and "will really beat
them" on WXGA.
The display embodies several
interesting technological elements. Because of the 1x3
tiling, both tiling seams are vertical. The RGB stripe
sub-pixels are oriented horizontally rather than vertically,
so the stripes are perpendicular to the tiling seams. All
pixels – not only the ones adjacent to the seams – are
designed with a "tiling allocation" border, and
proprietary drive circuitry matches luminance and color
across seams on the fly. Light from the backlight is
collimated before passing through the LCD, and is diffused
afterwards, Krusius said.
The results of this
engineering, as seen in the demonstration unit, were
impressive. The seams were invisible with most combinations
of color and luminance, and were never more than faintly
visible. Viewing angle was close to a remarkable 180°, with
good maintenance of color through nearly all of that range.
There was only slight smearing on moving images, and very
little reflection was observed from the front surface.
Information: URL: www.rainbowdisplays.com
