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Strategies & Market Trends : ahhaha's ahs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ron Dior who wrote (4476)	5/31/2002 9:18:29 AM
From: riposte	Respond to of 24758

Another display technology... For several years now, I've been occasionally dropping in on Candescent (http://www.candescent.com), and watching their "ThinCRT" technology. Their Web site seems quite a bit smaller than it used to be, which is never a good sign. -Steve

To: Ron Dior who wrote (4476)	6/3/2002 11:34:07 PM
From: Jack Hartmann	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24758

Hi Ron, I listened to several KOPN CCs where they discuss selling of the Cyberdisplays. Dr. Fan always complained that the electronics vendors wanted cheaper first, better second. :P Jack

To: Ron Dior who wrote (4476)	6/4/2002 1:09:44 AM
From: frankw1900	Respond to of 24758

[Edit]

To: Ron Dior who wrote (4476)	6/6/2002 8:26:03 AM
From: frankw1900	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24758

Any thoughts are welcome? Ron, the exchange between you, me and Ah has got me thinking about why I'm so interested in display technology. First, to catch up on your posting: Microdisplays can be used as the image machine for projection engines or as near to the eye displays. Insofar as the backplane is a silicon chip they can be made using familiar technology and yields should be about the same as for chip making and they shouldn't be too pricey. (Although Sony right now wants $8400 US for their KF-60DX100 TV). So far, liquid crystal tech hasn't been using materials that luminesce and so it needs exterior light source. This is what makes LCoS a good tech for projectors. Organic light emitting diodes (OLEDS) and electro luminescent materials do provide a simpler microdisplay for viewfinders and other near to the eye devices and for heads up displays because they provide their own colours and don't need an exterior light source. As Ah points out upstream, HDTV and WED devices are not high tech, or at least, cutting edge. Displays using the HDTV device have the virtue of replacing the CRT's electron gun, phosphors and vacumn bottle with photons and a passive screen. WED device replaces them with an active phosphor screen. The problems with LC flat panel displays as found on a laptop or the larger ones that are marketed for desktop computers and TVs are that yields aren't great and so they're costly. They aren't very good at video and the image isn't great because of the filters that have to be used on the screen and colours often appear washed out. (Cheap CRT monitors and good projection displays give better performance). The advantages they have are they don't take up a lot of space and don't generate much heat. With respect to this market the iFire product might well be competitive because the manufacturing cost would be much less (see displaysearch.com ) but as Ah points out it's likely not going to arrive for a couple of years. …………. The reason I'm interested in display technology: We put up with the present electronic displays because we're used to them; it's "good enough"; we haven't seen better and better isn't available. The real standard that electronic display technology should be measured against is good film, still photos, and print, and it doesn't come close. I'm sure if technology were available that compared favourably with those media people would pay a premium for it. Certainly, business and professional users would. Not necessarily a huge premium, but it would take a little while before it's commoditized because some new manufacturing technology would have to be installed. I'm not the only person who thinks so. Here is a somewhat random list of companies pursuing new display technology universaldisplay.com cdtltd.co.uk dow.com uniax.com find.siemens.com covion.com emagincorp.com eink.com microopticalcorp.com rolltronics.com stanfordresources.com kentdisplays.com domino.watson.ibm.com aixtron.com kodak.com luxell.com There seem to be three areas which are promising for new displays - OLEDS, in small molecule and polymer form, and Electric ink. The small molecule OLED technology is further developed than polymer and is currently being used in cell phones and other small electronics displays by Pioneer and Sanyo and, soon, I expect by Samsung and Sony. EMagin [EMA] is selling its OLED microdisplay product (but is still having trouble with its creditors. Is Traveller's in the vulture business?). OLEDS will be the tech of choice for video displays, I'm sure, because they are very fast on/off, emissive, bright, good colours, are transparent - they can be stacked (making very high pixel density), can be attached to plastic substrates (flexible, light weight displays). Displays have good viewing angles, can be seen in bright sunlight , and have fewer manufacturing steps than LCD. Ultimately, an OLED display factory should be cheaper to build than an LC. Right now there is overcapacity in the LC display industry and some companies will be loathe to cannibalize their present investment to build OLED lines but others will write off those investments (eg, Sanyo, Sony, Samsung, Phillips LG) because OLEDs will make their broad product lines more attractive. There seem to be some competitive axes developing in this area. Development companies such as UDC [PANL] and Cambridge Display Technology are forming alliances with chemical, display, and electronic tool fabricating companies with an eye to developing "turnkey" OLED display production lines. They expect to make money, I think, by selling expertise, licences, and OLED materials. How much profit there will be in this isn't clear. Their big competitor is Kodak, which owns the original OLED patents and is selling licences etc. How I get investment value out of the area isn't entirely clear to me but the display market is huge and in dire need of a revolution. In lieu of inspiration, whenever I have some mad money, and the price of PANL stock is really low, I buy a few shares. Electronic ink is the technology for signage and electronic books. E Ink is not publicly traded (its shareholders are interesting - eink.com ). It's competitor is Kent Displays Inc and it's not publicly traded, either. The competitor for both is OLEDs, perhaps, if their ultimate cost goes low enough because OLEDs eventually will replace conventional lighting - Siemans/Osram is very involved in OLED research w4.siemens.de