History

The Story Behind Micron's Displaytech FLCOS Microdisplays

Micron's microdisplays are high-speed, low-power ferroelectric liquid crystal on silicon (FLCOS) systems that provide brilliant, full-color images in an extremely small footprint. The quality of this technology is already well-recognized by our customers—more than 21-million of these imaging devices have shipped to some of the world’s premier consumer electronics companies including Citizen, Hewlett-Packard, JVC, Kyocera, Konica-Minolta, and Olympus.

Representing an excellent opportunity to integrate Displaytech’s groundbreaking technology and patents into our world-class portfolio, Micron entered the microdisplay business by acquiring business assets from Displaytech. We have a long heritage of developing best-in-class technology, and Displaytech’s patent coverage extends across the entire display panel value-chain. From liquid crystal materials through device structures to electronic and optical systems, these patents put us in an excellent position to further extend the superior performance and competitive differentiation of the Displaytech product line.

A History of Displaytech, Inc.

At Displaytech’s founding in 1985 it began carrying out research to commercialize ferroelectric liquid crystal technologies. Ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLC) are much faster than similar liquid crystal technologies; switching up to 100 times faster. They reached an important milestone with the development of the first FLC materials that operated reliably within a broad temperature range. The company supported itself during the initial decade with government-funded research and by producing FLC electro-optic devices for sale to university and industrial research laboratories. During this period the company developed and demonstrated the first liquid crystal on silicon device using foundry silicon.

In 1999, based on its success in producing FLC materials that operated over full commercial temperature range, Displaytech launched a line of microdisplays for use as electronic viewfinders in digital cameras and camcorders. That year Displaytech also selected Citizen Miyota as a manufacturing partner and transferred process know-how to them, enabling them to successfully build FLCOS devices in high volume. Since then Displaytech has shipped over 21 million FLCOS microdisplays for use in digital still cameras, camcorders and other consumer electronics devices.

In August 2006 Displaytech licensed its electronic viewfinder product line to Citizen Miyota. The agreement allowed Displaytech to focus on a range of new products, including small projectors, mobile communications devices, data storage, head-mounted displays and more.

In May of 2009, Displaytech agreed to be acquired by Micron Technology, believing that combining their best-in-class display technology with the semiconductor innovator’s decades of experience and worldwide sales channel could provide mass-market possibilities that were previously unattainable.