UniPixel Displays (The Woodlands, TX) has developed a time-multiplexed optical-shutter (TMOS) display technology that the company says can surpass organic-light-emitting-diode (OLED), plasma, and liquid-crystal (LCD) display technologies with its brighter, higher-contrast, better-color, more-energy-efficient, physically flexible, and less-expensive display capabilities.

Low cost is realized by the roll-to-roll manufactured Opcuity active-layer thin film that replaces an LCD panel’s liquid crystals, color filters, polarizers, cell structures, and brightness-enhancement films, and by an edge-light module that replaces the large LCD backlight. Opcuity is a thin film with micro-optic structures on one surface that are surrounded by a conductive material deposited in the valleys between the structures. Thin-film transistors control the display-surface shutters allowing red, green, and blue light injected from the edge-mounted light-emitting diodes to escape through frustrated total internal reflection. Rather than blending the light output from three adjacent color filters, TMOS uses short bursts of color in different durations through a single pixel to create different daylight-readable colors and hues across the display. UniPixel is currently producing prototype units and partnering with end-user and supply-chain companies to integrate TMOS in mobile displays. Contact Jim Tassone at jim.tassone@unipixel.com.

Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 CST 2007