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The Microdisplay Page Since 1998
... your guide to microdisplay development around the world

Latest update : October 13 2010: 1 correction

What are microdisplays ?

There are many different definitions for the word 'microdisplay', but in our opinion the best definition is:

Microdisplays are displays that are so small that optical magnification is needed.

Most microdisplays use a silicon chip as the substrate material. The chip also houses the addressing electronics (at least an active matrix with integrated drivers), usually implemented in standard CMOS technology. This mature technology generates very reliable and stable circuits (better than TFT technology) and allows very small pixel pitches (down to 10 µm or even somewhat smaller) and high display resolutions.

Microdisplays can be used in projectors or in "near to the eye" (NTE) applications, such as in head-mounted displays and camera view-finders.

Several electro-optical effects can be used to generate the image: Electroluminescence (EL), OLED, vacuum fluorescence (VF), reflective Liquid Crystal effects and tilting or deforming of micro-mirrors (requires micro-machining). The most popular combinations today are Liquid Crystal On Silicon (LCOS), OLED on silicon and tilted mirrors (DMD or DLP).

Active microdisplay players

Silicon foundries
UMC (Taiwan), Fujitsu (Japan), SMICS (China), TSMC (Taiwan)

LCOS companies
Amic, Aurora Systems, Boulder Nonlinear Systems, Compound Photonics, Forth Dimensions Displays, Displaytech, eLCOS, Gemidis, Himax Display, Hitachi, iMD, JVC, Kopin (transmissive), Opsis, PicVue, Spatialight, Syndiant, Sony, TMDC, UMO, Varitronix

Assembly houses
Amic, Compound Photonics, Hana, Myiota,

Application builders
Accuscene, BBS Bildsysteme , Compound Photonics, Daeyang, Gain Micro Optics, Holoeye, i-O Display systems, Liteye, MicroOptical, Trivisio, Wavien

Microdisplay research centres
Cambridge University (UK), CDR (Hong Kong), Edinburgh University, ERSO/ITRI, IMEC/UGent

Non-LCOS microdisplay companies
Compound Photonics, eMagin (OLED), MicroEmissive (OLED), MicroVision, Planar (EL), Reflectivity (MEMS), Silicon Light Machine, Texas Instruments (DMD - DLP)

Please tell me if you think a company or institute should be added or removed. Newest additions are highlighted in yellow.

TFCG Microdisplay research

Our own microdisplay research is described on the TFCG home page, under "microdisplay". We can show 3 generations of microdisplay development.

European Microdisplay Projects:

IST-FP6	IST-FP5	Esprit-FP4

Other web resources

Tutorials & web publications
General tutorial on LCD (MIT)
In-depth LCD course by Prof. Wu (UCF School of Optics - CREOL)
Displays & Electro-Optic Components (Ghent University)
Liquid Crystal Displays (Ghent University)
High-Resolution displays (IBM)
Microdisplay Tutorial (SPIE, 147 K pdf file)

Standardization
VESA microdisplay committee

Microdisplay communities

Microdisplay discussion group:
Everything you always wanted to know about microdisplays? Don't be afraid to ask it here! Moderated to avoid spamming.

Member of the Wearable Technology Net Ring
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These mutual links should bring you back here...

OLED/PLED Display community

Conferences

SID-ME Chapter Spring 08 Meeting Jena, Germany, March 13-14, 2008 with spectacular planetarium laser show!
SPIE Photonics Europe, Strasbourg, France, April 7-11, 2008
SID Display week 2008 Los Angeles, CA, USA, May 13-23, 2008

Chronicle of microdisplay related links:

Newest entries are always added at the top. Please also check the older links for additions or updates in this color

2010-10-13 Corrected spelling of the company name "Displaytech" (recently bought by Micron)
2007-12-29 A new player has arrived: Compound Photonics (Cambridge). Happy Holidays!
2007-10-23 Amic (Korea) added to "assembly houses".
2007-2-6 Displaytech has made this interesting "History of LCOS" page, listing achievements starting as early as 1973! I was only 8 then.
2007-1-17 The Micro Device Display Projection Consortium (MDDPC) has set up a website to promote Microdisplay based displays and TVs: www.md-display.com. Founding members of the consortium are Arisawa, Epson, JVC, Philips, Texas Instruments. Supporting members are Forth Dimension Displays, Luminus, Samsung, SCRAM, Vikuiti and Wavien. A brochure on the website explains the present and future advantages of MDDTV versus plasma and direct-view LCD.
2006-11-16 Kopin's Microdisplay Incorporated into Wild Planet's Spy Video Car(TM). Read it here. Pdf backup in case the original link dies.
2006-10-31 Remember the microdisplay tutorial by David Armitage, Ian Underwood and Shin-Tson Wu (posted 2002-11-25)? This was only a teaser for their book about microdisplays. The book can be ordered through the Wiley website.
2006-6-22 Another fabless LCOS company has entered the arena (in 2004): Syndiant Inc. Located in Richardson, Texas.
2006-3-3 The Community for OLED/PLED-displays is a great resource for organic and polymer LED displays.
2006-2-22 CRLO Displays becomes Forth Dimensions Displays Limited. Located in Scotland, by the Firth of Forth...
2005-12-12 It becomes more and more clear that the use of microdisplays is not limited to pure display applications: In a press release, the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering (Jena, Germany) reports about microdisplay based systems for medical applications.
2005-11-17 Berlin-based HOLOEYE Photonics AG is a specialist in diffractive optics and builds applications around microdisplay-based spatial light modulators. Besides that, they provide OEM-microdisplay services based primarily on Brillian's LCoS(TM) panels.
2005-11-3 München-based BBS Bildsysteme is developing and manufactoring LCD and LCOS controllers for many different photographic and holographic applications.
2005-10-26 Link to Himax Displays (under "LCOS companies") updated to represent the company's spin off from Himax Technologies Inc in August 2004.
2005-07-06 This was long overdue: finally removed Intel and Philips from the list of LCOS companies.
2005-05-17 This year, the SID-Mid Europe Spring Meeting was held in Ghent on March 10-11. For the first time, the meeting was organized joinly with SID-France. See some pictures of the event.
2004-10-13 Our own LCOS-spinoff GEMIDIS (GEnt MIcroDISplay) was launched in August, but the official press release was this week. Read about it here, here (Dutch) or here.
2004-10-13 More good news from Scotland: Ian Underwood, one of the LCOS pioneers and founder of Microemissive Displays, was awarded the prestigious title "Scotland's top innovator 2004". Congratulations, Ian!
22004-10-13 Some good news from Scotland: Microemissive Displays announces its Intention to List on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange.
2004-09-28 Three-Five has spun off its microdisplay business into a company called Brillian corp. The list of LCOS companies was updated accordingly.
2004-09-28 List of upcoming conferences updated.
22004-05-21 Long time since the last update ... this must be a new record ;-) Anyway, Scottish FLCOS company MicroVue has been taken over by CRL Opto and was removed from the list of LCOS companies.
2004-02-09 Himax Optoelectronics Corporation (Taiwan) added to LCOS companies
2004-01-05Happy New Year! + Boulder Nonlinear Systems added to LCOS companies
2004-01-05 SMIC added to LCOS foundries. See this press announcement (cached pdf file).
2003-12-11 IDW'03 gallery added to the featured and special links.
2003-11-12 We found this excellent online course about Liquid Crystals, by Prof. Dr. Shin-Tson Wu, UCF.
2003-8-11 Gain Micro Optics develops a low-cost 3-panel LCOS-based light engine.
2003-4-22 AccuScene, a Scotland based company, was added to the application builder list. AccuScene designs and develops high definition viewfinders and personal monitors based on the FLCoS technology.
2003-3-28 Integrated Microdisplay Limited (iMD) is a spin-off of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). iMD has major capabilities in LCOS microdisplay design, characterization and applications.
2003-02-25 Back from the dead: Information for the European Display Community.
2003-02-20 Yesterday, Sony announced their "SXRD" device, an LCOS panel with Vertically Aligned Liquid Crystal and full HDTV resolution (1920x1080). They claim the contrast is 3000:1.
2003-01-16 Of course a Happy New Year for all the visitors of The Microdisplay Page!
2003-01-16 Check out the new publication by Insight Media: Projection Monthly. The first issue is distributed for free. See the Featured links above.
2002-12-9 New upcoming conference: ISSC2003, with an LCOS paper by Samsung
2002-11-25 The SPIE OE magazine's November 2002 issue features this excellent tutorial about microdisplays (147,773 bytes pdf document). It was written by three specialists: David Armitage, Ian Underwood and Shin-Tson Wu. See this page for this month's SPIE tutorial.
2002-11-20 For a long time, it was difficult to find information on the web about Philips' work on microdisplays. But now, Stefan Majoni from Philips Semiconductors sent me this link (in fact it is a search command at internetsearch.philips.com) which leads to tons of information about their unique single-panel LCOS approach. Thanks, Stefan!
2002-11-19 TSMC has been added to the list of foundries offering an LCOS technology.
2002-11-18 Another near-to-eye company is Trivisio. They were not mentioned here before. Thanks Gerrit Spaas for sending me this info. Trivisio uses the Three-Five Systems 800x600 LCoS light valves.
2002-11-18 MicroOptical Corporation was added to the list of application builders. I wonder why I did not put them there earlier, because they were first mentioned on this page on 1999-8-31 (see below). Thanks Henry Frosch for spotting this.
2002-11-18 This day is the start of the 'microdisplay week' of the 'Natuur & Techniek' scientific calendar. 'Natuur & Techniek' is a Dutch scientific magazine.
2002-10-17 The Eurodisplay 2002 conference is finished. Our papers are available for downloading here. I've also made a small page with some pictures.
2002-9-27 From 1-4 October, the Eurodisplay conference will be held in Nice, France. Our group (IMEC-TFCG) will have a booth at the exhibition. Please feel free to come and visit us.
We also have 2 oral presentations and one poster at the conference:
11-4 "A XGA VAN-LCoS Projector"
14-1 "Passive Matrix addressing of Electrophoretic Image Displays"
P-45 "Assembly of an XGA 0.9-in LCoS Display using Inorganic Alignment Layers for VAN LC".
2002-9-27 There is now a public information page for the IST project (LCOS4LCOS; liquid crystal on silicon for low-cost optical system) in which we participate.
2002-7-29 The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering (IOF) in Jena performs modeling and simulation of optical components and coatings for microdisplays (pdf file).
2002-5-15 Reflectivity, based in Santa Clara, is another Silicon Valley startup, developing micromirror-based microdisplays.
2002-4-23 eLCOS is a new fabless LCOS company based in sunny Sunnyvale, CA.
2002-4-9 Wavien inc. has teamed up with Three-Five Systems, Colorlink and Advanced Digital Optics to create a small format, low-cost LCOS engine around 0.5" XGA light valves. One of the key developments is the integration of the 'dual paraboloid' reflector, presented on SPIE Electronics Imaging in San Jose, January 2002 (paper 4657-01). This component increases the etendue-related efficiency, especially for very small light valves.
2002-3-25 The TMDC website is up!
2002-3-19 Major update of The Microdisplay Page: dead links were marked "down"; some links were revived; a list of active microdisplay players was added (see above); a list of tutorials and web publications was added (see above).
2002-3-19 While checking the old links, I discovered that The Microdisplay Page is now ranked number 1 in the Most popular searches for 'Microdisplays' at search.msn.com.
2002-3-19 I also discovered that MicroVue was never featured here until now. It is a joint venture between Scipher (UK) and PicVue (Taiwan). MicroVue is based in Scotland, close to Edinburgh.
2002-2-27 Some color pictures of images projected with the first TMDC XGA color projector. See the TFCG microdisplay research page.
2002-2-5 Zight Corporation (formerly Colorado Microdisplay) has become one of the victims of the economic recession in the high-tech branche. Three-Five Systems has in the mean time bought a substantial part of Zight. See the full story on the report page.
2002-2-5 In December, Micropix has become CRL Opto Ltd. Read more about it in this press release.
2001-11-21 Announcement of the first Projection Industry Summit, to be held June 10-11, 2002 in Las Vegas.
2001-11-13 Added a pdf file with the detailed specs of our TMDC XGA microdisplay. See this page
2001-10-23 The ACMOS group at USC's Information Sciences Institute has quite some experience in low-power designs. The link with microdisplays is clear from their chip design gallery.
2001-10-18 From 30 to 31 October, Madison square garden in New York will be filled with wearable computer technology, on the tech-u-wear 2001 Conference and Exhibition. The conference will focus on the technologies behind wearable computing and the latest business applications driving the market forward.
2001-10-9 The people from The Microdisplay Report have been quite productive this summer and have released a number of interesting reports, like the Microdisplay Module Forecast Report and the Projection Industry Report.
2001-10-9 This update is really overdue, I know. Weak excuse: the preparation of European project proposals has eaten up quite some time.
Anyway, we were present at the 2 microdisplay conferences in Colorado and Edinburgh (see below) and met some interesting people there.
On the Mosarel page, a final update was made: I have added the 57-page public report.
2001-6-22 Another Microdisplay conference, this time in Edinburgh, Scotland, 13-14 September 2001, organised by CUPID. Be there if you can.
2001-6-22 The next big event on microdisplays is Microdisplay 2001, (August 13-15, Westminster, Colorado). This conference is also organised by the SID.
2001-6-22 Now that we have presented some of the Mosarel results on SID 2001, I can disclose some more information and pictures on the Mosarel page.
2001-6-12 I'm back from SID 01 at San Jose. There were quite a number of microdisplay related papers (on the symposium) and booths (on the exhibition). It was an opportunity to meet some people I only knew from the web, which is a really nice experience. Dr. Ian Underwood gave me this new link:
Microemissive, a Scottish company that develops and manufactures OLED on Silicon microdisplays.
2001-5-31 DuPont gives some more information about its holographic reflectors on this site.
2001-5-28 down: Colorado Microdisplay has become Zight corporation. Read about it on their new home page.
2001-5-3 More TFCG news: the first pictures taken of our XGA microdisplay, designed for and developed in co-operation with TMDC (Taiwan Micro Display Corporation).
2001-5-3 TheClock magazine addresses LCOS displays in its April 2001 issue.
2001-3-8 Finally some news on the Mosarel page. More results will be presented at SID 2001 in San Jose this June.
2001-3-8 It came to my attention that ERSO/ITRI in taiwan is also involved in LCOS technology.
2001-2-9 Three-Five Systems have redesigned their microdisplay page, presenting a line-up of available products and some technical data and FAQ's about microdisplays.
2001-2-9 eGroups and Yahoo have merged. The discussion group is now located at Yahoo Groups. Once there, you can convert your eGroup's account to a Yahoo account.
2001-1-19 Hana Microdisplay Technologies in Ohio now have their own official website. The old page on ths site of the Hana group also still exists.
2001-1-10 A HAPPY NEW YEAR! The year starts with the announcement of the first Stanford Resources' "Microdisplays" report. There is also a new edition of the "Projection Displays" report.
2000-12-18 down: Polaroid and Colorado MicroDisplay form a camera alliance. Read it here on optics.org
2000-12-14 Do you need flex prints for your microdisplay?. Innovex can provide them. Site includes design guides, material selection and other data on flex circuit interconnects.
2000-12-1 Daeyang E&C presents its Cy-Visor personal viewer built around a MicroDisplay microdisplay.
2000-12-1 Displaytech's japanese production partner Miyota is now licensed to produce microdisplays. See this page.
2000-12-1 down: Miniature Display Competition is heating up (EBN article)
2000-12-1 down: Philips was never mentioned on this page until now, although they also have quite some activity in this field. See for example this article about their accord with Hana MicroDisplay.
2000-11-23 The Microdisplay discussion forum is open! At E-groups. . New: eGroups and Yahoo have merged. You will automatically be redirected to Yahoo Groups.
2000-11-23 JVC presents its family of D-ILA microdisplay chips and projectors. Detailed product brochures are available in the download section (in the form of pdf files).
2000-11-17 It is not equipped with high resolution real microdisplays yet, but if it were, this Olympys Eye-Trek could become a very nice product indeed.
2000-11-6 Using waveguide technology, Cambridge 3D Display Ltd. was able to develop this thin alternative for rear projectors, called The Wedge
2000-9-15 down: I found this Korean "Professor Lee's Cyber Lecture", apparently giving an overview of the different existing display technogies (and a link to this page on their page 4.3)
2000-8-24 Added a new section: mutual links (links from other sites to the Microdisplay page)
2000-8-9 down: Something fun : Seen on the Photonis Applications site: British Telecom incorporates a Kopin microdisplay in its SmartQuill Pen . See this page on the BT site.
2000-8-9 Something fun (2) : (also from the Photonics Applications site) Using Displaytech's ultra-fast ferro-electric 256x256 -pixel LCOS microdisplay, Act Research Corp. was able to fabricate this fine volumetric display Link repaired (thanks to Henry Frosch)
2000-8-9 down: Something technical: just discovered the description of a project carried out by Kristina Johnson of Colorado university to planarize LCOS displays with a spin-cast planarization method.
2000-8-9 Something less technical: The Microdisplay page is ranked number 3 in the Most popular searches for 'Microdisplays' at search.msn.com. In the mean time we are number 1!
2000-8-4 Remember the Seiko Ruputer? A company called onHand sells the overseas version of this originally Japanese product.
2000-8-4 The DRL (Display Research Laboratories) page is open (see also below at date 1999-02-12)
2000-8-4 down: The United Engineering Foundation is sponsoring Microdisplay 2000, a conference to discuss the technologies involved in developing microdisplay-based systems. The conference is held from 07 to 09 August, in Boulder, Colorado.
2000-5-29 down:Just found this in the InFocus Press Room: In Focus Partners with Three-Five Systems to Drive Development of LCOS-based front projector products.
2000-5-23 down: We have contacted Dupont about their holographic color separation film today. Unfortunately they have the policy of not co-operating with universities, because this requires the signing of NDAs (non-disclosure agreements). For Dupont, this apparently takes too much time. We regret that some companies have this attitude and we thank the many other companies that still believe in university research and with which we have many fruitful co-operations (with NDA).
2000-5-18 SPIE announces the publication of "Helmet and Head-Mounted Displays", Vol. 11 of a CD-ROM with selected SPIE papers. Table of contents is here.
2000-5-15 down: See these 2 links: 1, 2 for the first products using the Dupont HOE film.
2000-5-12 down: Displaywear builds internet appliances based on microdisplays. Strange, but I would have sworn I already saw that guy in the airplane on the Colorado Microdisplay page. And that text... didn't I already read it on the In Viso page? I guess it's just a small world...
2000-5-5 The Displaysearch "Press Room" lists all the latest news in the display world.
2000-4-10 Not only the paper by Bob Melcher et al. (see link dd. 2000-2-28), but a complete collection of microdisplay related papers can be found in Vol 42 no 3/4 of the IBM Journal of Research&Development. This must be one of the most comprehensive collections of papers in this field. Thanks Ian Underwood for this link!
2000-4-6 Tekgear is a Canadian company selling HMD's and handheld display systems based on the Kopin and CMD microdisplays.
2000-2-28 down: CMD and HMTI announce co-operation on microdisplays.
2000-2-28 A colleague of mine found this electronic version of a paper by Rob Melcher et al. on the IBM site. It describes the 2048x2048 pixel IBM microdisplay, a truly remarkable achievement.
2000-2-10 Hana Microdisplay Technologies has acquired the S-Vision manufacturing plant and claims to be "the missing link between fab-less microdisplay product design companies and optical system integrators".
2000-2-10 Aurora Systems is an LCD driver designer and manufacturer. In 1999, they have acquired the intellectual property rights of S-Vision. This has resulted in the XGA MicroLCD.
2000-2-08 This link is only indirectly related to microdisplays, but I was so impressed by the "Polymers and Liquid Crystals" site that I advise everyone to have a look at this fine piece of work by the Case Western Reserve University in conjunction with the Center for Advanced Liquid Crystalline Optical Materials (ALCOM) at Kent State University. Ideal for students or anyone who wants to learn about liquid crystals.
2000-2-08 LiquidImage (now TekGear) is a Canadian company that sells head-mounted and hand-held personal viewers based on the Kopin microdisplay.
2000-2-08 I have barely discovered the webpage of a US company called FED and the first thing I read is that they have changed their name to eMagin. Did I mention they make microdisplays with OLED?
2000-2-08 down: Some news about Colorado Microdisplay: CMD receives funding from 3i and Intel and gains new sales and markerting leadership.
2000-2-04 Opsis is a French company located near Paris (in the so-called "science island" region). Among their realisations is a transmissive microdisplay with 512x512 pixels.
2000-1-31 down: Dot Electronics has a summary of the Mosarel project on This page.
1999-11-22 down: See This article in Optics.org Industry news for more information about the partnership between Digilens (link below) and DuPont Holographics.
1999-11-15 Digilens is one of the new companies trying to fulfill the need for specific optics for microdisplay systems. Their technology uses electrically switchable polymer dispersed liquid crystal layers to produce switchable holographic optical elements, which they call ASIL (Application Specific Integrated Lenses).
1999-10-25 down: JVC, DuPont and Dai-Nippon Printing have co-developed a holographic color separation film that is used in a 1-cell 50-inch ILA Projection TV.
1999-10-19 Liteye (Light Eye?) produces 320x240 pixel (and now also 800x600) full colour (colour sequential) and monochrome transmissive AMLCDs and 640x480 AMELDs for incorporation in head-mounted devices. Transmissive microdisplays and AMELD? These must be the Kopin devices.
1999-10-18 Some info about Mosarel on the Prosoma page but they seem to have developed some problem with their data base, hence the 'No such file or directory' message. The Mosarel homepage has also been updated and can be seen here.
1999-08-31 The Microdisplay Report has started providing monthly summaries of previous issues. Free trial subscriptions are available for interested parties.
1999-08-31 down: Digital Reflection makes high resolution display engines based on silicon reflective light valves. On their home page, they offer a silicon light valve tutorial (Macromedia's Flash/Shockwave plugin required).
1999-08-31 The Microoptical corporation now also has Clip-on displays (link updated) to put on ordinary glasses.
1999-08-31 Three-Five Systems Acquires National (link is down) and S-Vision Microdisplay Technology.
1999-08-27 The Daeyang headset seen on this PC Expo 99 review is probably one of the first commercial non-projector-based products using a microdisplay.
1999-08-27 Vesa inaugurates a new microdisplay committee to address standards needed in microdisplays and microdisplay-based products. See this announcement in the VESA Press Room.
1999-08-27 Hong Kong's Varitronix has recently forged a manufacturing and technology agreement with U.S. microdisplay startup SpatiaLight Inc. See this article in EEtimes.
1999-08-27 down: If you speak Swedish, then this will probably interest you.
1999-08-27 2000 will be the year of the microdisplay, according to this article on idg-net. (On July 2nd, we were still convinced that 1999 would be the year of the microdisplay; see below)
1999-08-04 Some more microdisplay and SLM results from the university of Edinburgh can be found on this and on this page. (See also the older link to Edinburgh below).
1999-07-02 down: We were already convinced, but now it is official: This year will be the year of the microdisplay (Article in EE Times)
1999-07-02 We are glad the MicrodisplayWeb is back online, albeit with a different URL
1999-07-02 Not really a microdisplay according to our definition, but the Microvision Virtual Retinal Display aims at the same area of personal display applications.
1999-05-27 down: Siliscape has changed its name to In Viso. Maybe the original name sounded too "Sili" ;-)
1999-05-27 The latest news on wearable computer products: The Wearables Central. Many discussions going on about microdisplays (and Borgs). Just search for the word "microdisplay" or "lcos" (or "Borg" if you don't know what it means and want to find out about it...)
1999-05-27 This one should have been on this page sooner (I must have overlooked): Spatialight
1999-04-02 Another popular article about MicroDisplay's microdisplays' applications
1999-04-02 I rediscovered the futuristic page about a wrist-top computer on this page
1999-04-02 down: IBM's Ultra-wearable PC uses a head-mounted microdisplay (Dutch text)
1999-04-02 down: At the DisplaySearch/EBN Industry Conference, headset maker Virtual Vision has demonstrated a prototype miniature display using an LCOS display from Colorado MicroDisplay. See this article on Planet IT
1999-04-02 Micro-video display links at Berkeley University
1999-04-02 MicroDisplay's opinion about a new power-saving standard for mini-displays The original link is down. This archived article can now be accessed if you first register (for free) with pd.pennnet.com. Just search for the keyword 'alvelda'.
1999-02-23 down: Daewoo is starting mass production of the TMA / AMA in June 1999, according to this article in the Korean Economic Weekly. Link is dead for obvious reasons.
1999-02-17 down: The Aurascope AMA (Actuated Mirror Array) by Aura Systems is nearing commercialization and is based on the Daewoo TMA (see 4 entries below). Link content has changed
1999-02-12 Display Research Laboratories is a young company that has combined Vacuum Fluorescence with silicon, yielding "VFOS" displays.
JVC present their range of D-ILA microdisplay products. See for example the DLA-M2000SC.
DisplaySearch is a flat panel display market research firm in Texas selling the Miniature Display Pricing and Specification Database, containing prices and specifications of more than 100 microdisplays under 2.5". In their "Press Room" (link updated), you can read about the most recent evolutions in the display world.
Seen at Asia Display in Seoul: The Daewoo "Thin-film Micromirror Array-actuated" or TMA. Similar at first sight to Texas Instruments DLP, but also very different. See the link to Aura Systems above for information about the commercialization of this invention.
The Microdisplay Report is an excellent monthly newsletter by Chris Chinnock
What would happen if the Seiko Instruments "Ruputer" had a real microdisplay built-in (such as this one, for example)?
A brief comparison of different reflective LCD effects, by IBM (Research sponsored by ASET)
Although its importance is not at all limited to microdisplays, we still want to include this excellent technical report by Sharp about Reflective-type LCD technology trends
down: Dr. Mark Handschy's review of Head mounted displays
Siliconinvestor stock talks about miscellaneous (technology), semiconductors and computers. Microdisplays and related companies are amongst the hot topics.
Boulder Nonlinear Systems offer microdisplays and spacial light modulators with resolutions up to 512x512
A commercial product: the Personal Monitor.
Micropix is a UK company producing XGA microdisplays with Ferroelectric LC. Micropix is now called CRL Opto Ltd.
Iain Ranking from the University of Edinburgh presents the results of his excellent work on Ferroelectric LCOS or FLCOS on this page. Includes lots of pictures!
The DRA Fast Bitplane SLM at Cambridge University in England
The University of Colorado at Boulder investigates liquid-crystal-on-silicon microdisplay devices.
Varitronix in Hong Kong lists the specs of a 1/4 SVGA, an XGA and an SXGA light valve
The Prof. Y.C. Lee group investigates manufacturing issues for the packaging of LCOS SLMs
Press announcement of the 800x600 Colorado MicroDisplay at EE Times. The Colorado MicroDisplay homepage is here (down). They have demonstrated their display during the exhibition at Asia Display '98
Small is Hot, by Displaytech. See this page for specs of the available panels
On Asia Display '98, I have finally met Phillip Alvelda, the founder of The MicroDisplay Corporation. I have also seen their VGA resolution microdisplay, in B/W and in time-sequential color mode. Great work, guys! On their homepage, you can put your own image on their microdisplay and see how it looks. Really! See for yourself.
down: S-Vision designs and sells Micro Liquid Crystal Displays. Link is down. See more information on the 1999-08-31 link above.
Kopin's Cyberdisplays
down: Pioneer commercialises the XG1 microdisplay projector Pioneer has stopped all development of LCOS microdisplays.
Texas Instruments use the micro-mirror approach in their DLP displays
Planar use electroluminescence to produce EL microdisplays displays. Nice page with lots of relevant information.
Visit the facilities of the Centre for Display Research (CDR) at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Includes pictures of a working microdisplay and schematic block diagrams explaining the operation. A frame-sequential color microdisplay was actually demonstrated at Asia Display '98.
down: Siliscape announce a microdisplay with 800x600 pixels by mid '98. They also show a very smart virtual imaging system. If the link doesn't work anymore, try this one (they changed their name to In Viso)
Three-Five Systems have an alliance with National Semiconductor and produce LCoS microdisplays with SVGA or SXGA resolution, a high contrast ratio and a low cost per pixel, using a reflective silicon-on-glass technology
Motorola announcing VirtoVue virtual displays
Microdisplay integrated in a pair of eyeglasses at The MicroOptical Corporation
down: Reflection has implemented a handheld, paperless fax machine using a monochrome linear LED array that is scanned by a moving mirror. The resulting microdisplay has a resolution of 864x256 pixels.
Using electrostatically deformable gratings, Silicon Light Machine have the technology to produce highly efficient microdisplays, with properties similar to the Texas Instruments DLP.
The McLaughlin Consulting Group has studied the cost aspects of 11CMOS Backplane Technologies
down: The microdisplayweb page by Frederick Nobile is another great source of information about microdisplays. .