Miniature Silicon Display Developed in the UK

Staff -- Semiconductor International, 3/1/1998

A British research consortium has developed a high resolution silicon liquid crystal miniature display (SLIMDIS). The consortium employs commercial CMOS foundry techniques to form an array of 786,432 pixels on a 12 mm pitch. The resolution is better than 80 lines/mm. This display is very suitable for use in lightweight head-mounted viewers.

Admit Design Systems (South Queensferry, Scotland) developed the pixel driver circuitry that can operate the active matrix at speeds of up to 4 Gpixel/sec. Davin Optical (Borehamwood, Herts) designed and developed the plastic wide-field viewer, and Swindon Silicon Systems (Swindon, Wiltshire) worked on the backplane design. GEC-Marconi Research Centre (Great Baddow, Chelmsford) and Edinburgh

University (Edinburgh, Scotland) completed the consortium. The work was supported by the British government's Department of Trade and Industry LINK Photonics program. Admit Design Systems intends to exploit the technology in the marketplace.