III-Vs Review

Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) licensee MicroEmissive Displays has announced that it has raised over 5 million pounds Sterling (over $9 million), and has revealed its plans for a volume manufacturing facility for its polymer light emitting diode (P-OLED) micro-display products.

The manufacturing project has been underway for some time, and the plant is expected to be fully online in 2007. MED has its headquarters and a development facility in Edinburgh, Scotland, while the new production facility is being brought up in Dresden, Germany, a centre for semiconductor and polymer technology. The new line will be fully automated and capable of producing commercial volumes of displays - up to ten million units per annum.
MED microdisplays are likely to find short to medium term application in the fast growing mobile entertainment and 'video on the move' segments, as well as in those applications previously identified such as electronic viewfinders for digital still and movie cameras. MED has shown their products at CDT's SID stand in June and reported a high level of customer interest.

"eyescreen" won the inaugural Emerging Technology Award of the IET in 2005, and the eyescreen ME3203 product was voted one of the three most exciting products shown at this year's 3GSM Exhibition in Barcelona.

"We are delighted to see MED moving to full commercial production with their excellent low power requirement microdisplay products," commented CDT's CEO Dr David Fyfe. "We believe there is a large potential market for P-OLED displays which can show full motion video, and MED's eyescreen product is ideal for the wearable headset market segment."

The first volume shipment from the Dresden line is expected by the second quarter of 2007, and the first customer letter of intent has already been received.

P-OLEDs are part of the family of OLEDs, which are thin, lightweight and power efficient devices that emit light when an electric current flows.

P-OLEDs offer an enhanced visual experience and superior performance characteristics compared with other flat panel display technologies such as liquid crystal displays, and have the key advantage that they can be applied in solution using printing processes.

MicroEmissive Displays Group was founded in 1999 with the aim of developing and commercialising a new microdisplay technology using the revolutionary polymer organic light emitting diode (P-OLED) materials. MED has previously raised three rounds of venture capital funding between 2000 and 2003. These supported in turn: proof of principle, technology development and product and process development. In late 2004 MED floated on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange. Today MED employs around 40 people, mainly at its headquarters in Edinburgh, Scotland. It has sales representation and applications support in Asia, USA and Europe. The company has released its first product and made its initial shipment in December 2005.

CDT: www.cdtltd.co.uk

MED: www.microemissive.com