Company

About Displaytech Inc.

Displaytech Inc. dramatically improves display-based products by providing Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal on Silicon (FLCOS) as microdisplays that deliver high-speed light switching to produce brilliant, real-life digital images. By providing FLCOS as a Spatial Light Modulator (SLM), Displaytech enables leading-edge next-generation storage products. The company's patented FLCOS products include Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) semiconductor technologies, which facilitate light switching that is significantly faster than other liquid crystals. Displaytech's VLSI semiconductors make possible the creation of microdisplays that deliver unsurpassed image resolution, power efficiency and ease of manufacturability.

Displaytech was founded in 1984 as a research company that would commercialize ferroelectric liquid crystal technologies. Ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLC), while similar to other liquid crystal technologies, have the key difference that ferroelectric liquid crystals optically switch at speeds that are up to 100 times faster than other liquid crystals. Displaytech's research team spent 15 years perfecting the chemical structure of the FLC materials and today these materials are successfully used in a broad range of commercial and consumer applications. The company supported itself during this initial period through government research grants and by producing FLC optical shutters for university research.

In 1995, Displaytech succeeded in producing FLC material that operated over full commercial temperature range and was the first company to produce and demonstrate a liquid crystal on silicon device using foundry silicon. In 1999, based on these and other advances, Displaytech launched its LightView line of microdisplays for use as electronic viewfinders in digital cameras and camcorders.

Also in 1999, Displaytech 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 14-million FLC-enabled LightView microdisplays for use in digital still cameras, camcorders and other consumer electronics devices.

In August 2006, Displaytech announced it licensed the electronic viewfinder business to Citizen Miyota. The agreement allows Displaytech to increasingly focus on bringing the unsurpassed optical switching speed and manufacturability of their microdisplays to a range of new products, including small projectors, mobile communications devices, data storage, head-mounted displays and more.

Displaytech currently has over 100 granted, licensed and pending patents, and the company continues research and development to extend its technology leadership in FLCOS. The patent coverage extends across the entire liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) value-chain, putting Displaytech in a position to develop differentiated solutions with superior device performance.

The company has received numerous honors and awards, including being ranked as one of the fastest growing technology companies in North America by Deloitte and Touche in 2005. Displaytech products have been used in digital cameras and other consumer electronics from JVC, Kodak, Olympus, Hitachi, Konica-Minolta, Kyocera and Hewlett-Packard.

Displaytech's Technology

Displaytech is a pioneer in the development and commercialization of FLC technology. Ferroelectric liquid crystal technology is similar to the more common nematic liquid crystal technology, which is used to make computer displays, monitors and televisions. Ferroelectric liquid crystals differ from nematic liquid crystals in that ferroelectric devices provide on-off switching speed that is 100 times faster than that of nematic devices.

Displaytech has been able to harness FLC materials to create single-panel microdisplays based on silicon technology. Displaytech's FLCOS displays produce real-life images, free of motion smearing, while reducing the cost and size of consumer products. The company's technology reduces the integration burden traditionally associated with microdisplays by providing display panels, standard video interfaces and image control circuitry in one compact package, thereby reducing consumer product cost and size. In addition, Displaytech uses a mature manufacturing process that eliminates the production risk of integrating FLCOS microdisplays into consumer products.

As a result, Displaytech's technology enables consumer electronics companies to dramatically improve image quality while reducing their operational costs and time to market. Displaytech's versatile microdisplays support the development of next-generation display-based products for the consumer electronics, mobile communications, data storage and automotive industries, among others.

Displaytech's Products

Displaytech uses its revolutionary FLCOS technology to produce LightView microdisplays for digital still cameras, camcorders and personal communication products. The low power consumed by the technology and the compact form factor of Displaytech's LightView line enable innovative end-product design.

Displaytech is also engineering the future of data storage with Spatial Light Modulators (SLM) that permit data to be written to holographic data storage (HDS) discs. HDS discs feature a capacity 10-100 times greater than high definition (HD) DVD.

Displaytech is also currently conducting research and development in the following areas:

• Advanced microdisplays and optical systems;
• Write-heads with integrated phase masks for holographic optical data storage;
• FLCs capable of the analog modulation needed for optical beam steering;
• Bent-core ("banana") FLCs for electro-optic modulators, and
• Nonlinear optical (NLO) polymer FLCs.