Nanotechnology Now - Press Release: Kopin Announces Major Breakthrough in Shrinking Display Size

Home > Press > Kopin Announces Major Breakthrough in Shrinking Display Size

Abstract:
Fingernail-Size SVGA Display Exhibits Stunningly Sharp Color Images

Kopin Announces Major Breakthrough in Shrinking Display Size

TAUNTON, MA | Posted on January 7th, 2008

Kopin® Corporation (NASDAQ: KOPN), the largest U.S. manufacturer of microdisplays for mobile consumer and military applications, today announced the smallest color SVGA display (800 x 600 resolution) in the LCD industry. The CyberDisplay® SVGA LVS microdisplay has the same size (0.44" diagonal) as Kopin's current CyberDisplay VGA display (640 x 480 resolution), allowing it to utilize the same optics and housing developed for the VGA display. This new display is the culmination of Kopin's development program to shrink the full-color pixel size to 11.25-µm square. The CyberDisplay SVGA LVS display exhibits remarkably sharp color images.

"Our new SVGA display with the smallest pixel in the industry is a major milestone for Kopin's technology roadmap to provide more compact, higher resolution and lower power consumption displays," said Kopin's President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. John C. C. Fan. "Compared with our commercially available SVGA display with 0.59-inch diagonal and consuming ~ 100 mW, the new shrink SVGA display has a 45% smaller area and consumes 30% less power."

"There has been substantial concern in the past that the pixel size of our CyberDisplay LCD could not be reduced further," Dr. Fan continued. "We have now shrunk the pixels by more than 1000 times compared to those used in current LCD TVs. Conventional LCD TVs and laptop screens can now be reduced to fingernail sizes, which could open major applications for displaying high-resolution images in mobile portable devices."

"This exciting achievement is enabled by our investment in and development of 8-inch wafer processing over the past two years," said Dr. Boryeu Tsaur, Kopin's Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Display Business Unit. "Our development team was successful in substantially reducing the display's size and power consumption without compromising performance. This breakthrough enhancement in our CyberDisplay platform should have a major impact on our other products."

Kopin combined smaller pixel transistors and the planar multi-metal layer process offered by 8-inch Si IC processing with an enhanced nanotechnology process for its liquid crystal alignment and a precision cell-gap liquid crystal assembly process. The Company integrated all of these process improvements and achieved this breakthrough in its first trial.

Kopin's CyberDisplays are transmissive LCD displays with the same architecture as LCD flat panel TVs, but with ultra high pixel densities. The new 0.44" CyberDisplay SVGA LVS display is targeted for PC and HD-related video eyewear applications. Kopin will demonstrate this striking new display in a private showing at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week (January 7 - 10). CyberDisplay SVGA LVS samples will be available to select customers for evaluation and design-in.

####

About Kopin® Corporation
Kopin Corporation produces lightweight, power-efficient, ultra-small liquid crystal displays and heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) that are revolutionizing the way people around the world see, hear and communicate. Kopin has shipped more than 30 million displays for a range of consumer and military applications including digital cameras, personal video eyewear, camcorders, thermal weapon sights and night vision systems. The Company's unique HBTs, which help to enhance battery life, talk time and signal clarity, have been integrated into billions of wireless handsets as well as into WiFi, VoIP and high-speed Internet data transmission systems. Kopin's proprietary display and HBT technologies are protected by more than 200 global patents and patents pending.

Kopin, CyberDisplay, and The NanoSemiconductor Company are trademarks of Kopin Corporation.

Safe Harbor Statement

Statements in this news release about the CyberDisplay SVGA LVS may be considered "forward-looking" under the "Safe Harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These include statements relating to shrinking LCD TVs and laptop screens to fingernail sizes; potential for major applications for displaying high-resolution images in mobile portable devices; and potential impact of pixel shrinkage in Company’s other products. These statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that might affect the actual results, performance or achievements include, among other things, technical, manufacturing or other issues that may prevent Kopin from manufacturing the CyberDisplay SVGA LVS display; issues related to the supply or production of non-Kopin components used to manufacture its customers' products; the potential consequences surrounding any findings relating to the Company's special committee's ongoing internal review of stock option granting practices; uncertainty of results of pending civil litigation related to the Company's stock option grant practices; the potential for further delays related to the Company's regulatory filings; general economic and business conditions; and other risk factors and cautionary statements listed in the Company's periodic reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they are made. The Company undertakes no responsibility to update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstance occurring after the date of this report.

Kopin - The NanoSemiconductor Company®

For more information, please click here

Contacts:
Investor Relations
Kopin Corporation
Richard Sneider, CFO
508-824-6696

or
Technical Questions
Hong Choi, CTO
508-824-6696

or
News Media Relations
VP RDW Group, Inc.
Dave McDermitt
617-235-5812