[opendtv] Micromirror display manufacturers
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "OpenDTV (E-mail)" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 17:54:01 -0400
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Four startups gunning for TI's microdisplay business
By Rick Merritt , EE Times
August 26, 2004 (9:53 AM EDT)
URL: http://www.eet.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=3D35300003
LOS ANGELES - As many as four startups are quietly developing
versions of micromirror displays in response to Texas Instruments
Inc.'s early success with the technology it pioneered.
Separately Toshiba will announce in October plans to make the
proprietary surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED) a
linchpin of its high-end TV portfolio.
The news emerged at the HDTV Forum 2004 here where engineers said
they foresee significant growth for microdisplay-based TVs of all
sorts. But they also aired a laundry list of problems bringing
digital and high definition TV profitably to the mainstream.
Miradia Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) and Reflectivity Inc.
(Sunnyvale, Calif.) are designing alternatives to TI's Digital
Light Processing (DLP) technology for a host of front- and
rear-projection displays. As many as two other startups still in
stealth mode are also pursuing the use of tiny mirrors built in
microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) to attack TI's growing
business in high-end TVs and business projectors.
"Like most of the [consumer electronics] industry, this is a
very competitive market," said Greg Miller who left a job
heading a division of JDS Uniphase in April to become chief
executive of Miradia.
The 25-person startup will deliver XGA and 720-line progressive
microdisplays starting in mid-2005 with 1080p devices coming
later. The chips will be made on single-crystal silicon using
a standard CMOS process at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
Co. Ltd., which invested in the startup's recent $22 million B
series round led by Sequoia Capital.
Miller claims Miradia's manufacturing process leverages several
cost efficiencies that would allow it to undercut TI's DLP
prices, though he would not be specific on the process or price.
Miradia was founded in January by Harvard University physics
professor Dongmin Chen, Stanford University physics professor
Shoucheng Zhang and Jay Chen, a senior manager from Applied
Materials. The trio met every Sunday for most of 2002 developing
their concepts, Miller said.
A spokesman for Reflectivity said only that the company is in
advanced development of its micromirror products. The company's
Web site says it was founded in 1998 and has shown working
prototypes.
Industry insiders were split over the startups' likely impact.
Bill Burnett, president of TV design house D2M (Mountain View,
Calif.), said he has analyzed some of the new DLP competitors
under nondisclosure agreements and found them to have
"significant technology in MEMS." He predicted the competition
in the DLP market will heat up with startups undercutting TI's
prices starting next year, and TI fiercely defending its
intellectual property and market position.
"People aren't just going to leave this market to TI with all
the growth coming, but this could get ugly," he said.
Chris Chinnock, president of market watcher Insight Media
(Norwalk, Conn.), took a more skeptical view. He had not been
briefed by any of the startups yet.
"Until they show something working, they are just in the noise.
There are no significant competitors in the MEMS-based displays
as far as I know," he said.
Chinnock noted that another stealth microdisplay startup,
Steridian (Vancouver Wash.), claims it will sell a 1080p
transmissive microdisplay for as little as $500. Backers claim
the display leverages existing optics and display
infrastructure, has high brightness and a 100-percent aperture
ratio so that the display is not subject to pixelization.
Insight Media forecasts unit shipments of microdisplay TVs will
grow at a 63 percent compound annual rate through 2008,
representing three-quarters of the 7.1 million rear-projection
TVs shipped during that year.
Emerging startups "won't change my strategy," said John Reder,
manager of TI's tabletop TV business unit in TI's DLP group.
TI has now shipped more than 3 million DLP chips. To
accommodate future growth, TI signed up South Korea's Dongbu
Anam Semiconductor earlier this year to make the chips in
addition to TI's own fabs in Dallas and Miho, Japan.
Separately a Toshiba executive said here the company will
announce at CEATEC Japan in October product plans for its
proprietary SED technology, codeveloped with Canon. SED
displays will form the high-end of Toshiba's TV line with
best-in-class resolution, contrast ratio and response time
said Scott Ramirez, vice president of marketing for Toshiba
America Consumer Products (Wayne, N.J.), though he declined
to provide product details.
"This technology is better than plasma or LCDs for large
screens," Ramirez claimed.
Copyright 2003 CMP Media
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