news archive

A New Zight-geist at Colorado Microdisplay?

Boulder, Colorado, May 21 - Colorado Microdisplay has changed its name to Zight Corporation. The new name and corporate identity will be publicly displayed at the Society for Information Display (SID) conference and exhibit opening June 4th at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, California.

Director of Marketing Rainer Kuhn said the company will provide more details at the SID show about the name change, and will provide information about strategic plans, products, product design wins, and new additions to its management team.

In related announcements, Zight named Mark Willner chairman of the board and chief strategy officer, and announced the promotion of Kenney Roberts to president and CEO. These changes signal Zight's effective transition from an entrepreneurial to an operationally focused company.

Information: www.zight.com.

Optiva And Nakan Form Partnership

South San Francisco, May 22 - Optiva, Inc., the creator of a new class of nanomaterials for optical applications, and Nakan Co. Ltd., a leader in LCD manufacturing equipment, announced today that they have entered into a strategic partnership to jointly develop and market integrated coating systems for applying Optiva's Thin Crystal Film (TCF™) materials directly onto glass substrates for LCDs. Optiva's TCF materials will give displays better viewing characteristics and make them less expensive and up to 30 percent thinner than today's offerings, the company said. Japan-based Nakan currently holds an estimated 80 percent of the world LCD market for equipment that coats thin functional layers needed for display manufacturing, a process that is well suited for applying Optiva's TCF material. The two companies plan to work closely with select customers in the second and third quarter this year, with production equipment expected to be generally available in the first half of 2002. 

"Our relationship with Nakan will provide LCD manufacturers with the production tools they need to take full advantage of our nanomaterials technology, simplifying their process while taking significant expense out of their operations," said Robert M. Duboc, Jr., president and CEO of Optiva, Inc. "Nakan's alignment-layer coating equipment is a de facto standard in the LCD industry because of their technical leadership and excellence in meeting the demanding needs of manufacturers. We are very pleased to be working with such a valuable partner." 

The companies will be exhibiting at SID 2001, June 5-7, in San Jose.

Information: Greg King, Optiva. Tel: (650) 616-7618, Fax: (650) 616-7602, gdking@optivainc.com.

Korry Electronics Acquires Planar Systems' ATC-Monitor Product Line

Seattle, Washington - Korry Electronics Co., a subsidiary of Esterline Technologies of Bellevue, Washington, has announced an agreement with Planar Systems, Inc. of Beaverton, Oregon to acquire Planar's product line of high-performance 15- and 18-inch AMLCD monitors. The specialized monitors are used primarily for air traffic control (ATC) applications. 

"These products are a logical fit with our existing aerospace display business," said Alan Cornell, president of Korry. "We expect to leverage the new touch-screen, backlight, and dimming technologies into further growth opportunities for Korry." Terms of the agreement for the sale of the air traffic control monitor product line were not announced.

Information: Peggy Keene. Tel: (206) 281-1331, pkeene@korry.com.

LCOS Projector Development Boils

Norwalk, Connecticut, May 4 - Serious efforts are underway at many Taiwan OEMs aimed at bringing LCOS-based products to market this year, reports Insight Media in the May issue of its Microdisplay Report (MDR). Acer, Primax, Imaging Quality Technologies, Everest Technology, Delta Electronics, Prokia Technology, Optoma, K Laser and WellSome are all working on LCOS products - just in Taiwan alone.

What is fascinating about the projector market is the wide number of LCOS projection platform architectures under development - over a dozen. By comparison, polysilicon LCD projection systems all use the same basic architecture and DLP systems mostly come in either a 3-panel or single-chip color wheel version. The editors at MDR believe this kind of innovation will eventually lead to low-cost projection systems that could help propel a major expansion in consumer entertainment projection systems.

Innovation is also coming in component technology. For example, film-based polarizers can exhibit thermal problems in projection systems. Now, metal-grid polarizers are available, and new materials systems that promise to put the polarizer inside the display are in the development labs.

Meanwhile, LCOS panels are becoming more available. Among the activity: Three-Five has started shipping a 0.5-inch XGA panel, and Unipac is gearing up offer LCOS panels.

Information: Dave Torromeo, Insight Media. Tel: (203) 831-8464, Fax: (203) 838-8432, news@mdreport.com.

Opsys to Manufacture OLEDs in Silicon Valley

Oxford, UK, May 15 - Opsys Limited, the Oxford-based technology group developing organic light-emitting diode (OLED) flat graphic-display screens, today announced a major expansion program. The program, supported by US $11.2 million in initial-phase venture funding from 3i and Quester, two European venture-capital investors, will support expansion of the company's UK research facility and the construction of a new manufacturing and research facility in Fremont, California.

(An Opsys OLED backlight provides the 
illumination for this cell phone's LCD display.)

Opsys recently became the first European company to be awarded a license to use Kodak's OLED technology, which includes more than 50 key patents on OLED material and technology. The license will provide a foundation for Opsys innovations, including a proprietary blue light-emitting material that has very high temperature stability.

"By late 2002 we will be manufacturing 1-inch- to 5-inch-diagonal passive-matrix displays and backlights for portable devices using both the technology we have now licensed from Kodak and our own advanced OLED developments," said Opsys CEO Michael Holmes.

Information: Catherine Hindle, Marketing Coordinator. Tel: +44 (0)1865 309600, Fax: +44 (0)1865 847444, info@opsysdisplays.com, www.opsysdisplays.com.

Alien Technology Assimilates Industry Leaders

Morgan Hill, California, May 8 - Alien Technology Corporation today announced the addition of Paul Drzaic, Henry Girolamo, Andy Holman, and Mark McDonald to its team. They bring a wealth of technology, product and management experience to the company. According to Jeff Jacobsen, Alien's President and CEO, "These additions bring another substantial degree of strength to a team that was already the envy of the industry. They have all been key contributors in their previous positions and could have chosen from any number of options. We are delighted that they share our vision and feel compelled to become a part of it."

Paul Drzaic, Alien's new VP of Display Technology, has over 18 years of experience in the development and commercialization of electronic display technologies. Most recently, he was Director of Technology for E Ink Corporation, where he was responsible for the many aspects of the development of their electronic ink display technology. Drzaic is the author of the sole book on PDLC, has written of over 40 articles for refereed journals and conference proceedings, and holds 10 U.S. patents. Drzaic has held several leadership positions within the Society for Information Display (SID), and is currently serving as General Chair for the SID 2001 International Symposium. 

Henry Girolamo joins Alien as Director of Operations Research and Applications. He most recently served as Program Manager and Technical Representative with the Department of Defense and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) providing technical management and leadership for over $900 million of innovative research, development, and manufacturing programs in the display and sensor fields. Mr. Girolamo received the award for Sustained Excellence and Outstanding Performance by a Government Agent, multiple awards for Army Program Manager of the Year, the Program Management Technical Award, and the Achievement Medal for Civilian Service

Andy Holman, Director of Business Development, joins Alien from Avery Dennison. At Avery, he was Head of Sales and Marketing for the Electronic Materials Group. He has 23 years of electronic engineering and management experience producing consumer electronic products. Andy has developed products for the cellular telephone industry since 1986.

Mark McDonald is Alien's new Director of System Electronics. He was most recently Candescent Technologies' Manager of Applications Engineering, responsible for customer technical and product integration support, technical marketing support, competitive analysis, product concept, and demonstration vehicle design and construction.

Information: Stan Drobac, VP Business Development. Tel: (408) 782-3977, Fax (408) 782-3910, sdrobac@alientechnology.com, www.alientechnology.com.

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