news archive
USDC
Awards $5.8 Million R&D Contract to Litrex for Ink-jet
Technology
San Jose,
California, June 6 - The U.S. Display Consortium (USDC), a
public-private partnership supporting the electronic display
industry, announced today that it is awarding a contract to
Litrex Corporation (Pleasanton, California), a manufacturer
of industrial ink jet systems, to complete a two-phased
development project for ink-jet manufacturing of
light-emitting-polymer (LEP) displays. Litrex is a wholly
owned subsidiary of Cambridge Display Technology (CDT). The
$5.78M project will be cost-shared between Litrex and the
U.S. Display Consortium. Ink-jet manufacturing provides a
crucial alternative for developing the next generation of
flexible flat-panel displays, USDC said.
"The
primary objectives of this project are in line with USDC's
current focus to develop manufacturing capabilities for
OLEDs and for fabrication on flexible substrates," said
Dr. M. Robert Pinnel, chief technical officer for USDC.
Litrex will
subcontract portions of this project to Spectra (Hanover,
New Hampshire), an ink-jet head manufacturer, and to Avecia
(Manchester, UK), a manufacturer of polymer
light-emitting-diode materials. The two contractors will
share in the cost of the project, as well as the contract
award.
The objective
in Phase I of the project is to create a new LEP
display-production process and tools, including custom print
heads, ink and surface design rules, ink-jet production
hardware, and electronics and software specifically designed
to overcome the technical challenges facing LEP display ink
jet production.
In Phase II
the contractors will create a custom roll-to-roll prototype
system. The system will be capable of testing various
materials and ink-jet processes for fabricating LEP
displays. In addition, the contractors will compare
alternative printing techniques and materials to establish
the viability and best technical approach for roll-to-roll
LEP display fabrication on flexible substrates.
Information: www.usdc.org,
www.litrex.com, www.spectra-inc.com,
www.avecia.com.
Awards
Presentation at FINETECH JAPAN
Tokyo, Japan,
June 10 - The Seventh Annual Advanced Display of the Year (ADY)
Awards will be presented to 12 products by Reed Exhibitions
Japan Ltd. on July 3 at FINETECH JAPAN, which will be held
at the Tokyo Big Sight exhibition center. Awards are given
in four categories: display modules, display manufacturing
equipment, display testing equipment, and display materials
and components.
The winners in the four
categories are:
Display Module
Category
- International Display
Technology Inc. "22.2inch QUXGA-W (3840~2400)
9.2Mpixels LCD Monitor"
- Shizuoka Pioneer Corp.
"Plasma Display PDP-503, 433"
- Sony Corporation / ST
Liquid Crystal Display Corp. "ACX704AKM"
Display Manufacturing
Equipment Category
- Canon Inc.
"MPA-7500/MPA-7500CF"
- Mitsuboshi Diamond
Industrial Co., Ltd. "LCD Panel Scribing System MPL
Series"
- Shibaura Mechatronics
Corp. "Spin Cleaner for LTPS TFT LCDs
(Hyper-Spin)"
Display Testing Equipment
Category
- Otsuka Electronics Co.,
Ltd. "LCD Evaluation System"
- Technos Japan Corp. "Technos
Neurosensor 5000 Series"
- Toyo Corp. "LC
Alignment Layer Evaluation System PI-Checker"
Display Materials &
Components Category
- Kyoritsu Chemical Co.,
Ltd. "World Rock No.710 Series"
- Omron Corp. "High
Efficiency and High Brightness Backlight for Mobile
Phone"
- Teijin Limited
"Pure-Acer WR
The Grand Prize in each
category will be announced at the awards presentation.
Information: www.reedexpo.co.jp/ftj/english/
$999 Rear-projection DLP™
TV Possible by 2006, Zimmerman will say at Projection
Industry Summit Conference Next Week
Norwalk,
Connecticut, June 4 - The big-screen TV market for home
entertainment today is dominated by CRT-based
rear-projection systems. Challenging them are
rear-projection systems using three microdisplay
technologies: Digital Light Processing™ (DLP™);
high-temperature polysilicon (HTPS) LCD; and liquid crystal
on silicon (LCoS). But just as threatening are flat-panel
big screens using plasma display panels (PDPs) and
large-size liquid-crystal displays (LCDs). And then there is
the emerging challenge of affordable front projectors
offering a mobile alternative to large and heavy rear
projectors.
"In the
last 3-4 years, the U.S. market for big-screen TVs has grown
about 20 percent per year from 1 million units in 1998 to
perhaps 2.4 million units in 2002," says Larry Iram,
Director of Marketing & Product Planning - Consumer for
Corning Precision Lens. "We predict the industry will
ship 3.6 million systems worldwide in 2002. All of us in the
industry are wondering how long will this growth rate
continue? What TV technology will replace CRT-based
projection sets and at what rate? Will there be one
technology winner or multiple winners?
Trying to
read these tealeaves to help companies make multi-million
dollar product decisions will be the task undertaken by a
group of industry leaders at the Projection Industry Summit
Conference (PISC), which is being held in the Venetian Hotel
in Las Vegas on June 10-11 in conjunction with Infocomm
2002. Participating in a presentation and panel session will
be:
· Dale
Zimmerman, Business Manager for DLP Home Entertainment
Systems, Texas Instruments · Larry Iram, Dir. Marketing
& Product Planning - Consumer, Corning Precision Lens ·
Scott Hix, VP & Gen. Manager Business Development,
InFocus · Gary Bennett, VP Sales, Apex Digital
Texas
Instruments produces the DLP microdisplays that will compete
with the other two microdisplay technologies in
next-generation rear-projection TVs. But Zimmerman sees more
advantages to limited cooperation with his microdisplay
competitors than disadvantages. "We all need lamps,
screens, optics, and electronics, and we all want to replace
CRT-based rear-projection technology and fend off PDP
penetration," says Zimmerman. "If the
commercialization efforts of the microdisplay players are
not well coordinated, then TV set makers will be slow to
adopt the technology and PDP could gain a larger market
share."
Zimmerman
notes that rear-projection microdisplay-based TV sets need
to be sold for around $1,800 to displace CRT-based
rear-projection sets. "Products coming to market this
year are at least twice this price, but with some effort,
the sub $2,000 point is achievable in the near term,"
claims Zimmerman. "By 2006, we think a $999 set will be
possible. "Such sets would be aimed at the
"Premium TV" market, where screen sizes exceed 30
inches. "The market opportunity here is 14 to 20
million sets, depending upon whose numbers you
believe."
Apex Digital
VP of Sales Gary Bennett notes that sales of projection TVs
have sky-rocketed recently and sees the CRT-based RPTV
remaining the dominant big-screen TV in the near future.
"Once you go above the $3,000 retail point, the number
of sales drops off dramatically," says Bennett. "Microdisplay-based
sets and PDP need to move below this level if they hope to
compete as mainstream products, which really take hold below
$2,000." Apex Digital hopes to repeat its success with
low-cost DVD players by entering the rear-projection TV
space this year.
Gary Kayye, a
well-known consultant within the professional AV community,
will moderate the panel session. "The front runner to
displace CRT-based big-screen TVs today is PDP," says
Kayye. "That is why I will be very interested to hear
how and if the microdisplay-based players can really gain
some market share and give PDP a run for its money."
Information: http://www.insightmedia.info/conference.html
