Hewlett-Packard Co is moving into the emerging microdisplay market, and has signed a joint development deal with Displaytech Inc, a Longmont, Colorado-based developer of reflective microdisplay components and subsystems. The two plan to jointly design, manufacture, market and distribute microdisplays for low power consumer devices. Microdisplays can be smaller than a fingernail, and pack the imaging capability of a TV or computer monitor onto a silicon chip. They can be combined with an illumination source and/or optics. HP has been hinting that it will enter the portable devices market more seriously in the near future as part of its information appliance strategy (CI No 3,508), and has already launched the CapShare portable scanner. The two plan high volume new component products, expected to become available late next year, which will be sold under the combined HP and Displaytech brands. The first are likely to be aimed at TV and projection display companies, with personal information systems and wearable systems at a later date. Displaytech, a 12 year-old military contractor, claims the market is ripe for microdisplay products and that its partnership with HP will give it faster time to market and better price- performance. It already has a partnership with Samsung Electric Co. Displaytech uses ferroelectric liquid crystal display chips which it sells under the LightCaster brand name for applications currently including head-mounted displays, digital cameras, televisions, computer monitors and projects. Displaytech faces competition from start-ups such as San Pablo, California-based MicroDisplay Corp, which says its twisted nematics LCDs offer in- between states for greyscale displays, and therefore avoid the power-consuming on-off switching mode used by Displaytech. Microtech hasn’t signed up any similar agreements yet, but says it is talking to computer manufacturers, and expects to make announcements during the second quarter of next year.
