SK- This is what I found at www.planar.com. What do you think? It looks pretty similar to what Kopin is doing.
BOSTON--May 13, 1997--Planar Systems Inc.
(NASDAQ: PLNR) announced today, at the Society of Information Display
(SID) Conference, production capability for its MicroBrite(TM) family
of Active Matrix Electroluminescent (AMEL) miniature displays.
These miniature, high-resolution displays measure only 0.75
inches diagonally, are very thin and lightweight (only 2mm thick and
less than 3 grams in weight) and, with appropriate optics, have the
ability to produce the same virtual image of a large screen
television set. They are designed to be used in a wide range of
consumer, industrial and defense applications where high-resolution
display performance combined with lightweight, ruggedness and
portability provide performance advantages.
Planar also announced that MicroBrite has been selected by at
least six manufacturers of advanced military systems for use in
special individual soldier applications such as mine detection and
night-vision enhancement. MicroBrite AMEL displays are particularly
well suited for environmentally challenging applications because of
their inherent ruggedness, solid-state construction, long life, wide
operating temperature range and reliability. In addition to the
early adoption of this capability by defense systems manufacturers,
Planar has sampled a number of industrial and consumer systems
designers with kits.
Planar is a pioneer in the development of miniature AMEL displays
and is the only company to have perfected the use of thin-film EL
phosphors in the process. These AMEL displays were originally
developed in conjunction with DARPA and the DoD Services. By year
end, the MicroBrite family is intended to have both monochrome and
color displays of VGA resolution (640x480 pixel format). The tiny
displays are usually used in conjunction with magnifying optics to
provide a "virtual" image that can be the same as looking at a large
screen (42" diagonal) display at a distance of 6 feet, or with
different optics to provide personal viewing of handheld or
wrist-worn information, computing or entertainment systems.
Planar has received interest in its miniaturized displays from a
wide range of markets and applications including medical,
instrumentation, industrial, consumer and commercial use.
"This announcement of production capability is the result of an
intense three-year effort that saw a number of unique developmental
breakthroughs," said Bill Sproull, General Manager of Planar's
Miniature Displays business unit. "These breakthroughs came in
phosphor development, phosphor deposition manufacturing processes and
integrated circuit design and processing. These products move Planar
a lot closer to our objective of creating a proprietary, leadership
position in high-performance miniature displays."
Planar has an initial installed capacity of 100,000 units
annually of VGA resolution displays and is actively manufacturing and
selling design and prototyping kits. Interface kits are being made
available for computer-generated digital VGA, analog VGA and video
sources.
Planar Systems Inc. is a worldwide leader in the development,
manufacture and marketing of high-performance commercial flat-panel
display components, CRTs and flat-panel-based display products for
federal markets and display systems for specialized applications.
The primary market sectors that Planar serves today are medical,
industrial, instrumentation, defense, communications, transportation
and business/office. The company competes on a global basis with
full development, manufacturing and marketing operations in both the
United States and Europe.
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