|
June 1999
NEWS &
ANALYSIS
Trouble for S-Vision
Microdisplay developer
S-Vision (Santa Clara, CA) shocked attendees at last May's SID'99 show by
quietly disclosing they will be liquidating assets and ceasing operations.
Initially, the company maintained a stiff upper lip and declared that business
continued as usual. But things are not well at S-Vision. Repeated phone calls
have gone unanswered, messages are not returned and employee resumes are
showing up all over the flat panel display industry. It now looks like the
company may indeed close its books within a month or so.
CMD Introduces New Display
Chip Set
In early May,
Colorado MicroDisplay (CMD, Boulder, CO) announced a trio of new product
offerings that sets an impressive new standard. The three products, an upgraded
SVGA microdisplay and two support ASICs, are all offered for the first time in
manufacturing-friendly ball-grid array (BGA) packages.
Displaytech Pushes QVGA
The first fruits of the
alliance between Displaytech (Longmont, CO) and the Hewlett-Packard,
Microdisplay Products Operation (Ft. Collins, CO) will be a full color QVGA
(320 x 240) device. The display is based upon a reflective, ferroelectric
liquid-crystal-on-silicon structure and achieves color by means of field
sequential operation of red, green and blue LEDs.
Kopin Announces VGA,
SXGA
Kopin Corporation
(Taunton, MA) expanded their product line at SID'99 with their latest display
introductions: two SXGA monochrome devices and a color VGA microdisplay. The
VGA display is sampling now and will sell for less than $50 when it reaches
production in Q4'99. The SXGA devices should begin sampling in
July.
Daewoo To Show XGA Device In
September
This
September, Daewoo Electronics Company, Ltd. (Seoul, Korea) expects to show
their latest reflective display prototype at the upcoming EuroDisplay'99
conference to be held in Berlin, Germany. Their microdisplay technology, dubbed
Thin-film Micromirror Actuated Array (TMA), is a pixelated moving mirror, MEMS
device. Last September, they debuted a VGA prototype at AsiaDisplay'98 (see
October, 1998 Microdisplay Report), but in Germany, they plan to show an XGA
device.
ColorSwitch Enables
Single-Panel FSC Projection Systems
A new technology unveiled at SID'99 promises to enable
single-panel, field sequential color (FSC) systems. Developed by ColorLink
(Boulder, CO), a white light source can now be used with a single-panel
reflective microdisplay for high luminance, FSC projection applications. It
eliminates the requirement for a spinning color wheel and will be useful with
multimedia front projectors, as well as rear-projection HDTVs and computer
monitors.
FED Corp. Reaches OLED
Brightness Milestone
FED Corporation (Hopewell Junction, NY) reports they have achieved
the highest efficiencies yet for a white-emitting organic light emitting diode
(OLED). At SID'99, the company demonstrated white OLED devices with
efficiencies of 2.5 lumens/Watt at 50 Cd/m2 and 1.5 lumen/Watt at 1000 Cd/m2, a
record as far as the company knows.
MicroDisplay Corp. Upgrades
Evaluation Kit
The
MicroDisplay Corporation (San Pablo, CA) has just released version 2.0 of their
color evaluation kit. The new kit supports the SVGA MicroMonitor (MD800G6), a
reflective liquid-crystal-on-silicon (LCOS) display designed to operate in
field sequential color mode. The first evaluation kit, released last December,
supported their VGA device (MD640G3).
Microvision Joins With
Cree
Microvision, Inc.
(Bothell, WA) had a series of announcements preceding the SID show last month.
This included an equity investment and technology partnering arrangement with
Cree Research, Inc. (Durham, NC), two DARPA contracts and a new
patent.
FPD Industry News
UDC Teams With ITRI
Toshiba's LTPS Factory Begins Operations
dpiX Saved
Philips Buys 50% of
LG
Seiko Epson Spends on LCDs
Sharp Partners with Quanta
APPLICATIONS
Digital Still Cameras (with
Table)
Product news
from Displaytech, Fuji Photo Film, and Agfa Corporation
Camcorders (with Table)
Product news from
Displaytech, Kopin, Canon, and Sharp Electronics
HDTV (with Table)
New from Displaytech,
Samsung Electronics Company, Sony Electronics, Mitsubishi Digital Electronics
America, Panasonic, and Harris Corporation.
Medical Visualization
Technology development from
Microvision.
MARKET
INTELLIGENCE
Market
study news from Stanford Resources, Pacific Media Associates, the Korea
Institute of Industrial Economics and Trade, International Data Corporation,
Strategy Analytics, and DisplaySearch.
BOTTOM LINE
Financial news from
Preferred Capital, Texas Instruments, Microvision, SpatiaLight, Xybernaut, and
n-Vision.
MOVERS &
SHAKERS
Personnel
changes at Xybernaut and Three-Five Systems. |
