Syndiant introduces world's first Wide SVGA and smallest WVGA pico projector panels

World`s First Wide SVGA 1024x600 Microdisplay and World`s Smallest WVGA
(854x480) Microdisplay

DALLAS--(Business Wire)--
Syndiant, enabling consumers to enjoy a large screen experience in handheld electronics, introduces four products that support WVGA, SVGA and Wide SVGA resolution in pico projectors, while maintaining the ability to meet cost, power and form-factor requirements.

Three of the new products are LCOS microdisplay panels featuring Syndiant's patented all-digital smart panel VueG8 technology. The panels are ideal for the embedded or stand-alone pico projector market.

The three new LCOS display panels are:

* The SYL2030 offers the world`s smallest WVGA (854x480 pixels) microdisplay at only 6 mm tall with a pixel array diagonal of 0.21 inches and a 5.4 micron pixel pitch. The SYL2030 is intended for the high volume embedded pico projector market by enabling very thin (< 7 mm) optical modules that can fit into a large number of handsets and other handheld devices.

* The SYL2041 supports SVGA (800x600 pixels) and WVGA (854x480 pixels) resolutions.

* The SYL2061 is the world`s first microdisplay to provide Wide SVGA (1024x600 pixels) resolution for pico projectors.

Both the SYL2041 and SYL2061 use a larger 9.4 micron pixel pitch to provide a larger active array size for higher brightness products using LED illumination.

"While high quality mobile content becomes increasingly available, the small size and low resolution of mobile devices displays limit the viewer`s experience," said Mark Harward, CEO Syndiant. "We are enabling the pico projector market by providing the world`s smallest microdisplays with the highest resolution and the smallest form-factor." Syndiant`s fourth announced product, the SYA1012 ASIC controller, is an important advancement for pico projectors using Syndiant`s VueG8 LCOS display panels. It converts video signals into an efficient format used by the company`s LCOS display panels, which enables integration into a wide array of pico projection systems due to its high level of programmability and interface flexibility. "We are seeing very high demand for our microdisplays," continued Harward. "The previous generation pico projectors were limited by the microdisplay performance so they did not meet the threshold required by consumers. With our exceptional resolution, color saturation, and low cost, we are confident that Syndiant is providing the market with the right price/performance to allow the pico projector market to rapidly grow - at a rate much faster than analyst predictions." Engineering samples are immediately available with production quantities available in Q4 2009.

About Syndiant

Syndiant manufactures the world`s smallest and highest resolution light modulating chips used in ultra-portable projectors small enough to embed in a cell phone. Syndiant`s patented technologies provide a large screen experience in handheld electronics, such as smartphones, notebook computers, portable media players, video game consoles and cameras. The company is headquartered in Dallas, with a branch office in Taiwan. For more information, visit www.syndiant.com.

Via reuters.com / press release

Micron acquires DisplayTech, moves into Micro-Projector Business

Memory chip maker Micron Technology has acquired DisplayTech, a manufacturer of small display screens for camera viewfinders and display chips for Pico-style projectors, for an undisclosed amount, and is using some of its new assets to introduce today a new microdisplay panel small enough for placement in handheld devices like iPods or BlackBerrys.

The new panel was said to be a wide-screen quarter VGA (WQVGA) microdisplay solution designed to enable portable video and image projection for applications including head-mounted display products and embedded cellphone projectors.

It is based on ferroelectric liquid crystal on silicon (FLCOS) technology, which Micron said produces superior image quality and color fidelity to other competitive micro-projector display solutions.

The device is offered as a single chip and is said to require “minimal power” to operate.

“The FLCOS microdisplay technology that Micron has acquired from DisplayTech has demonstrated success in the market, clearly evident by the fact that more than 21 million panels have shipped in portable consumer electronic products,” stated Abid Ahmad, Micron’s silicon and systems group director. “With Micron now delivering this technology, we are well-positioned to provide our customer base with global support and an even stronger R&D platform to further extend FLCOS microdisplay technology.”

The chip consumes only 85 milliwatts, and is said to be suited for applications where portability and battery life is most critical. The product adds to Micron’s DisplayTech FLCOS microdisplay projection panel line, which includes QVGA, VGA, SVGA and WVGA panels.

Micron said the chief attribute of its FLCOS microdisplay approach is fast switching speed, which is said to be up to 100 times faster than traditional LCOS technology. This is important for using field sequential color, which, unlike color filtering, produces full color on each individual pixel, blending color by very rapidly integrating red, green and blue frames in sequence, Micron said.

When compared to Texas Instruments’ micromirror technology, FLCOS allows for “a fully integrated microdisplay solution, combining the display panel, memory, image processing and light driver control into one chip.” This reduces size and power requirements.

DisplayTech, which is based in Longmont, Calif., has shipped 21 million small display devices to such companies as 3M and Kodak.

Via twice.com