Gary and Thread - Intel reportedly puts its weight behind Flat Panel Display proliferation
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Intel joins display consortium, may kickstart microdisplays
A service of Semiconductor Business News, CMP Media Inc.
Story posted 5:30 p.m. EST/2:30 p.m., PST, 5/14/99
By Jack Robertson
Electronic Buyers' News
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The struggling U.S. flat-panel-display industry suddenly has a new heavyweight member -- Intel Corp.
Apparently seeking to accelerate adoption of microdisplay technology, Intel has joined the U.S. Display Consortium, an industry group fostering flat-panel production in the United States. The Intel operation registered with the USDC is the Display Technology unit of the company's New Business Group, according to USDC president and chief executive Michael Ciesinski.
"We want to learn more about display technology," said a spokesman for Intel, Santa Clara, Calif.
Malcolm Thompson, former USDC chairman and ex-president of dpiX Inc., Xerox's FPD subsidiary (see today's story), claimed Intel is exploring a number of FPD technologies, including active-matrix LCD microdisplays. Thompson also asserted that Intel is developing prototype microdisplays that could be used as desktop PC monitors, a precursor for the chip company's future entry into the FPD market.
Industry executives believe that Intel's effort is part of its blanket strategy to expand into new, PC-related products that would naturally extend into logic, graphics chip sets, motherboards, and networking devices.
"We have a wide range of R&D activities under way to understand many technologies. It isn't unusual for a chip company to research many related technologies, looking for new applications," said the Intel spokesman, who denied that the company has a major FPD program.
Sources said Intel has also taken a minority stake in Cambridge Displays, a British concern focused on developing a new light-emitting diode (LED) technology. The Intel spokesman said he couldn't confirm this, but added, "Intel is an active investor in many high-tech companies, acting as a catalyst to bring new applications to industry."
Although miniature FPDs are aimed at a variety of applications-from cell-phone image viewers to entertainment headsets-the Intel effort is aimed solely at rear-projection displays for desktop PCs, Thompson said.
"There are too many small microdisplay companies trying to get off the ground today," Thompson said. "But Intel brings a force to the market that could make it take off."
The embryonic market for miniature FPDs-panels a half-inch in diameter or less and fabricated on a conventional CMOS semiconductor process is probably half a decade away from producing any meaningful numbers (see story in the May publication of SBN).
Worldwide revenue for miniature FPDs is estimated to reach only $49 million this year, $83 million in 2000, and $141 million in 2001, according to DisplaySearch, an Austin, Tex.-based research firm. It won't be until 2005 that revenue exceeds $1 billion, based on DisplaySearch's projections.
Still, several companies are forging ahead. The USDC lists 22 companies worldwide currently developing or producing microdisplays. A majority are working on quarter- to half-inch panels made with conventional semiconductor processes with LCD material added.
DisplaySearch vice president Barry Young said he expects several OEMs to introduce the first desktop rear-projection microdisplays by the end of the year. Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Samsung, and Seiko-Epson are working intensely to bring microdisplay desktops to market, he said. |
