March 1999

NEWS & ANALYSIS

Cleanliness is Mantra in LCOS Manufacturing

Standing in a corridor, watching through a window while automated machines manufacture of liquid-crystal-on-silicon (LCOS) displays, it is all so eerily quite. Glass substrates glide over rollers, are lifted into cassettes and placed in machines. Conductors, epoxy, spacers and an alignment layer are applied. In parallel, 8-inch silicon wafers have an alignment layer applied and move into position for a mating to the glass substrate. Few human hands touch these materials.

S-Vision Plans Expansion

S-Vision has already established low volume production capabilities for LCOS displays in their Twinsburg, Ohio facility. Capacity is said to be about 10,000 patterned microdisplays per month, based upon their 1 inch XGA design. But starting in Q2’99, the company plans to begin Phase 2 of their manufacturing build-up plans.

Sanyo/Kodak Strike Deal

In a move to bring full color organic electroluminescent (OEL) display technology to portable products like digital still cameras, camcorders, cell phones, portable terminals, and PDAs, Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. and Eastman Kodak Company have signed a comprehensive alliance agreement.

FED Corp. Reveals Kodak Tie

Hot on the heels of the Sanyo/Kodak announcement, FED Corporation announced that they too have a license agreement with Eastman Kodak. "In fact," says Executive Vice President Susan Jones, "we have been working quietly with Kodak for about three years. We are now confident of our ability to commercialize the OLED technology, which is why we have disclosed our relationship at this time."

Displaytech Starts Build Out

By this summer, Displaytech plans to increase their Liquid-Crystal-On-Silicon (LCOS) manufacturing capacity from around 200 wafers per month to about 1000 wafers per month. The manufacturing expansion is being internally financed.

Kopin Eyes Camcorder Market, Outsources Backend Fab

In the fourth quarter of 1998, Kopin Corporation took a $3.5 million dollar write-down of equipment and inventory - all related to the manufacture of their QVGA CyberDisplays. According to company CFO Rich Sneider, there were two factors which drove the current write-down. One had to do with the outsourcing of the backend part of the display manufacturing process, and the other the result of a redesign effort needed to satisfy the needs of potential customers in the camcorder market.

VESA Microdisplay Group Sets Priorities

The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) Special Interest Group (SIG) on microdisplays met for the first time at last February’s Display Works 99 conference, held in San Jose, CA. After a couple of hours of presentations and discussions, the group of about 70 attendees finally agreed on the top three priorities as follows:

1. Developing methods/standards to produce/handle field sequential signals
2. Developing/improving measurement standards for microdisplays
3. Developing new interface standards for the "display product" interface and for the display’s "intrasystem" interface.

Digital Visual Interface (DVI) Standard In Final Review

The Digital Display Working Group (DDWG) says they have completed the final draft of the Digital Visual Interface (DVI) specification, and will now submit it to DDWG members for a last review. DDWG was formed last fall to define a universal industry standard for the digital interface between PCs, consumer electronic devices and digital displays. The cooperative effort is lead by Intel, Compaq, Fujitsu, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Microsoft, Dell, NEC and Silicon Image.

XGA Device From MicroDisplay Corp.

Following fast on the heels of their SVGA device demonstration, Microdisplay Corp. has produced their first XGA device. Named the MD1024G5 MicroMonitor, the LCOS device measures 0.63 inches in diagonal, and is the final device developed under the company’s rapid prototyping effort.

Welch-Allyn To Develop Lamp Technology for Monitors

Welch-Allyn thinks that rear-screen computer monitors could become a big business - one in which the U.S. could lead. They also envision these monitors being powered by lamps produced by Welch-Allyn. To make good on this dream, the company has now partnered with the United States Display Consortium (USDC, San Jose, CA) to develop metal halide lamps specifically for the rear screen projection market, many of which they see being controlled with Liquid-Crystal-On-Silicon (LCOS) light valves.

DRL Goes For Camcorder Market

Display Research Labs is developing a vacuum-fluorescent-on-silicon (VFOS) microdisplay. In their approach, a micro-grained phosphor is deposited on top of an array of pixels and control electronics that are fabricated in a CMOS foundry. A wire filament proves a source of electrons to excite the phosphors.

White LED Coming From Sumitomo

Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. has developed a new way to create a white light-emitting diode offering potential cost advantages over alternatives. The white LED could be used as a backlight for LCDs or in LED-based displays. Developer Masaaki Tobioka says he is now working on commercializing the process and plans to offer samples this fall, with production by early 2000.

Applications

Front Projection

News and product Table summaries from APTi America, InFocus Systems, Hitachi America, Ltd., NEC Technologies, and CTX Opto-Electronics Corp.

HDTV

News and analysis from McLaughlin Consulting Group, Pioneer Electric Corporation, Hoshiden & Philips Display Group, Sony Electronics, Texas Instruments, Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association (CEMA), Samsung Electronics America, Toshiba America Consumer Products, and Sharp Electronics.

Rear Projection

News and product Table summaries from Sony Electronics and APTi America.

Wearables

News & analysis from Xybernaut Corporation, FAB Securities, Via, Inc., Microvision, and Stanford University.

Camcorders

News and product Table summaries from JVC Company of America, Canon, and Sony Electronics.

Digital Still Cameras

News and product table summaries from Agfa, Epson, Ricoh, Nikon, Olympus, Polaroid, Toshiba America Consumer Electronics, Sony Electronics, Fuji Photo Film, and Hewlett Packard.

Market Intelligence

News from McLaughlin Consulting Group, DisplaySearch, InfoTrends Research Group, The Strategis Group, GartnerGroup’s Dataquest, International Engineering Consortium and the University of Southern California Center for Telecommunications Management, and Strategy Analytics.

Bottom Line

Financial results for Kopin Corporation.

Movers & Shakers

Personnel announcements from FED Corporation.