Sept. 4, 1997, Business Wire reports that Motorola and Kopin
Corporation have signed an agreement for development and manufacture
of small, low cost, low power flat panel LCD displays.
[1997/09/12]
May 25, 1997 (?) Electronic Engineering Times reports
that Idemitsu Kosan Co. Ltd has demonstrated a new organic
electroluminescent (EL) display at the Society for
Information Display symposium. A monochrome blue display
was demonstrated. A full colour version is expected
later this year.
[1997/05/31]
May 10, 1997, Electronic Engineering Times reports a number of
recent developments in reflected, ambient light based colour LCD
displays to be discussed at the Society for Information Display
(SID) conference. The critical specifications for comfortable
viewing described as "newspaper level" quality is 5:1 contrast
and 60% reflectance. Toshiba has discussed 3.4" three layer panels
with 240 * 160 pixels supporting 512 colours. Matsushita will
discuss an STN technology 7.8" VGA panel supporting 4096 colours.
Matsushita claims 12:1 contrast (5:1 is conventional), sampling
at a unit cost of $400 (US) in July. Sharp Corp. has improved
upon a previously announced 5" TFT LCD supporting 512 colours
with an 8.4" unit supporting 4096 colours to be produced within
this fiscal year. Seiko Epson Corp. has developed a 6.3" VGA
display supporting 512 colours and Hoshiden Philips Display has
developed a 9.5" VGA display supporting 512 colours to be marketed
this year.
[1997/05/19]
Mar. 26, 1997, Gail Robinson, Electronic Engineering Times reports
progress made in thin-film and organic-transistor projects at
Princeton University. Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) have
been formed on thin stainless steel substrates indicating a
new possible process for inexpensive flat panel displays. The
progress was presented at the meeting of the "Materials Research
Society" in San Francisco.
[1997/04/04]
Mar. 21, 1997, Electronic Buyers News reports that Matsushita
intends to spend over $1 billion (US) over the next 4 years to build
3 new plant for production of 3 new active-matrix LCD plants in
Japan. This attempt to catch up with Sharp will double their output.
The article states that there is currently a shortage of 12.1"
and larger flat panel displays but anticipates an oversupply by
late 1998.
[1997/03/30]
Mar. 5, 1997, Information Week reported Hewlett Packard's latest
upgrades to the Vectra desktop computer line. The interesting
note on the bottom of the article was that they are adding a
14" LCD display as an option for desktop computers for $2,419
(US). It's not the first LCD monitor, but the trend is still new.
[1997/03/11]