A breakthrough in low-cost, high definition flat panel displays is claimed by Alpine Polyvision SA, a French subsidiary of New York-based Alpine Group. According to the New York Times, the Polyvision system replaces the twin panes of glass encapsulating liquid crystals that are charged to form the image in a standard passive matrix display, with a single pane of glass coated with an electrically sensitive film. The pane is sandwiched on one side by a transparent layer of Tin Oxiode on one side and either Copper or Aluminium foil on the other. When a spot on the film is charged, it turns black, and charging of pixels is via row-and-column conductors. The new system is claimed to change its state fast enough for full-motion video, yet to require only 20 steps to make, compared with 80 for a liquid crystal display – and it does not need a clean room for fabrication, so that it is expected that displays, which can be cut out of large sheets of the material, will cost about half the price of a passive matrix liquid crystal display. The company sees the new screens being used products like calculators and digital scales later this year, before they show up in portable computers and televisions, for which the company is working on a colour version. A pilot plant is being built in Massy, France with capacity of 5m displays a year; a volume production plant is planned for Wallingford, Connecticut but will not be ready until late next year. It will have capacity of 40m displays a year. Alpine Group has sold most of its other interests to bet the company on Polyvision: its turnover for its most recent fiscal year was just $6.3m.
