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March 2000
NEWS & ANALYSIS
Philips Declares
Big Intentions for LCOS
The fledgling microdisplay industry got a big boost this month as display heavy
weight Philips Flat Display Systems (San Jose, CA) announced a major
co-development agreement with Hana MicroDisplay Technologies, Inc. (HMTI,
Twinsburg, OH). Six different liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) are on the
Philips' roadmap with the first, a 0.97-inch XGA panel, now sampling to
customers. Philips branded and OEM-branded projection products are coming too.
Given the determination Philips is showing to see this technology succeed,
their formal entry bodes well for the whole microdisplay industry.
CMD Announces Volume
Production
Colorado
MicroDisplay (CMD, Boulder, CO) has announced they are ready to begin volume
production of their SVGA microdisplay intended for near-to-eye applications. In
a major supply agreement, Hana MicroDisplay Technologies, Inc. (HMTI,
Twinsburg, OH) will perform the liquid crystal cell assembly, packaging and
test for CMD. Mass production should now begin in April.
MicroDisplay Corp. Gets Big
Order, Raises $6M
In
January, we reported that Hansol Electronics, Inc. (ChoongBuk, Korea) had
invested $6M in LCOS display developer, MicroDisplay Corporation (MDC, San
Pablo, CA), and signed a separate $2.5M development contract for a
rear-projection monitor. In a second major announcement, another Korean company
is following a similar formula. This time it is video headset developer Daeyang
E&C (Seoul, Korea) who is investing $6M. They then upped the ante by
releasing a 150K piece SVGA display order. As far as we know, this is the
largest high- resolution order for LCOS displays to date. Wow!
Industry
Positions
Insight
Media, the publishers of the Microdisplay Report, has now launched an industry
employment service. On our web site (www.mdreport.com) you can now find
positions available in the display industry. There is a job description and
contact information. With staffing a critical need in the microdisplay segment,
we hope this will help fill some positions and move the industry
forward.
We currently have
these positions available:
Product Manager
Product Marketing
Manager
Vice President, Marketing
Please visit the
web site for more information on these positions.
If you have a
position you wish to fill, and you want to post this position on our web site,
please email a description of the job, a brief paragraph about your company,
and your company logo to news@mdereport.com. Rates, per position, are as
follows:
$50 set up fee
$75 per month per position (2 month
minimum)
$50 per month per position thereafter
Look for this box
each month to find out what positions are available, or better yet, visit the
web site from time to time.
Projector
Database
Insight Media
is proud to announce the first in a series of databases we will be offering to
augment your knowledge about the microdisplay industry and the end-products
where they will be used. Available now are the front and rear projection
databases which cover LCD, DLP and CRT-based products. Viewable and
downloadable samples are available at www.mdreport.com.
Each database
contains specifications, pricing, availability and current product status on a
great many projection products. For example, there are over 175 rear-projection
and over 400 front-projection models. These are some of the same products you
have seen in the tables we publish each month, only now, you can see a lot more
of the data.
There are over 30
information fields in each database covering the basic data sheet
specifications, pricing history, ship dates and current product status. And,
since it is in an Excel spreadsheet format, you can sort it, modify it or
augment it any way you want. We also assign a status to each product so you can
view discontinued, end of life, shipping or announced products. This can help
give a heads-up on what is coming in the next 6-12 months.
While no database
can be 100% complete or accurate, we have tried hard to get as much information
as is available on each product, especially newer models. We will be
maintaining these databases monthly for delivery of quarterly updates.
Pricing for projector databases are:
Current edition
Plus 3 quarterly updates
Front Projection $995 $1,995
Rear Projection
$750 $1,495
Front & Rear Projection $1,495 $2,995
Kopin To Double CyberDisplay
Capacity
Kopin
Corporation (Taunton, MA) has announced plans to double the production capacity
of its CyberDisplay products to 200K units per month by July 2000. This marks
the second major expansion of Kopin's display operations in the past 12 months,
reflecting the strong demand for CyberDisplay products in camcorders, digital
still cameras and other portable electronic devices.
TI Works Thru DLP
Backlog
For Texas
Instruments (Dallas, TX), 1999 was the best of times and the worst of times. A
huge surge in demand for DLP systems, especially 1-chip systems, meant the
company was swamped with orders for their XGA and SVGA chips. But the company
was unprepared for this and struggled throughout out the latter half of the
year to ramp up production and deliver chips to hungry customers. As 2000
dawns, TI reports that they have now just about caught up with demand.
ColorLink To Manufacture in
Japan
ColorLink, Inc.
(Boulder, CO) and Arisawa Mfg. Co., Ltd., (Joetsu-City, Japan) have created a
new joint venture company, ColorLink Japan, Ltd., which will manufacture
products based on proprietary technology developed by ColorLink. These products
provide a solid-state alternative to a rotating color wheel in single-panel
LCOS (liquid crystal on silicon) systems and color separation and recombination
components in three-panel systems. Each of these architectures is used in
LCD-based rear-projection digital TVs and computer monitors and front
projectors.
Call for Papers
Microdisplays Technologies and
Systems (VV03)
Session Chair: Chris Chinnock, Sr. Editor of Microdisplay
Report
This new symposium
is part of SPIE's International Symposium on Voice, Video, and Data
Communications. It will be held November 5-8, 2000 at the Hynes Convention
Center, Boston,. Massachusetts USA.
Abstract Due Date: April 10, 2000
Manuscript Due Date: October 9, 2000
Please submit abstracts to SPIE using
the web form at www.spie.org/info/[sympinitial]
In this conference
session, we will examine some of the issues facing developers as they attempt
to integrate new microdisplay technology into product platforms. Topics of
interest can include:
The need to couple
microdisplay development to end-system specifications.
Improving optical
efficiency in microdisplay-based projection systems
Novel optical
technologies for virtual or projection systems
New optical designs for
virtual or projection systems
Thermal management in projection systems
Signal interface issues with microdisplay-based systems
Ruggedization and
packaging issues
Reducing power consumption in portable microdisplay-based
systems
Novel product platforms
New microdisplay technology
Functional integration within the microdisplay backplane
Trends and
manufacturing issues with microdisplays
Advantages and disadvantages of
various microdisplay technologies
Mitigating flicker or visual
artifacts
Modulation techniques
Standards development
APPLICATIONS
Front Projection (with
Table)
Product news
from Sanyo Electric Co., Sanyo Fisher, Eiki International, Proxima, NEC
Technologies, JVC Professional Products Company, Sony Corporation, Christie
Digital Systems, Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Company, Toshiba
America Consumer Products and InFocus Systems. There was also business news
from Lightware and Genigraphics, Polycom and Seiko Epson
Corporation.
Headsets
A wrap-up of product and business
news from Sony Electronics, Olympus, Optics 1, Interactive Imaging Systems,
Ilixco, VR Source, Liteye Microdisplay Systems, Micropix, The Air Force
Research Laboratory's Logistics Readiness Branch and The Technology
Partnership. (Grosse Ile, MI).
Vis/Sim
Summary of news in the
visualization/simulation segment from the Hayden Planetarium, SGI, Trimension
Systems Ltd., NASA Ames Research Center, CAE, Inc., and Thomson Training &
Simulation.
Digital Still
Cameras
Wrap-up of new
product introductions from Panasonic, JVC, Sony, Fujifilm, Ricoh, Olympus,
Nikon, Casio, Canon, Samsung, and Kodak.
Camcorders
WRap-up of news from Canon, Sony, and Panasonic.
MARKET INTELLIGENCE
FPD
Factory Cost of Ownership Model Revealed
Samsung and LG Top LCD Producer
List
Digital Photography to Replace Film in 4 years
DVD, Camcorder, PTV
Sales Strong in January
FPD Factory Cost of Ownership Model Revealed
Samsung and LG Top LCD Producer List
BOTTOM LINE
Scipher Goes
Public
JVC Loses Mount, Reorganization Continues
MOVERS &
SHAKERS
DisplaySearch
(Austin, TX) has hired Yoshio Tamura, while Three-Five Systems' (Tempe, AZ)
Jeffrey D. Buchanan, has been elected as chairman of USDC's (San Jose, CA)
Governing Board of Directors.
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