CDT to produce novel display for US Army SAPS

Cambridge Display Technology has been selected to develop a prototype handheld light-emitting polymer display for the US National Imagery and Mapping Agency.

Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) has been selected to develop a prototype handheld light-emitting polymer (LEP) display for the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), through the National Technology Alliance Program.

The prototype handheld tactical device will use a red/near-infra-red (R/NIR) monochrome LEP display, designated a covert red/infra-red viewer, CRIV, and represents a new class of displays to be used by US Armed Forces and the intelligence community in its situational awareness and planning systems (SAPS).

This display is designed to be easily viewable during normal daylight and night time operations as well as optionally viewable at night only with the use of night vision goggles, offering an important performance improvement in reducing the probability of detection during night time operations.

"NIMA continually researches and identifies the best technology available to support imagery intelligence and geospatial information in guaranteeing the information edge to its customers", said research and technology staff at NIMA.

"The unique performance characteristics of CDT's LEP displays offer great potential in developing the next generation of SAPS.

Their wide viewing angles, energy efficiency, fast refresh rate at any temperature, thinness, and near-infrared characteristics offer advantages over current SAPS displays.

And the potential for flexible displays is exciting".

The development of the R/NIR LEP display is the first phase of a demonstration prototype project that CDT is partnering on with the National Center for Applied Technology (NCAT), one of three labs run by the National Technology Alliance (NTA), a partnership sponsored by NIMA between government, industry, and academia to leverage high value technologies developed in the commercial market for government users.

Potential subsequent phases will include a full colour display as well as a flexible display format.

"The selection of CDT for this program because of the unique performance features of our LEPs illustrates the broad potential that the technology offers", said David Fyfe, CEO of CDT.

"Working in a collaborative effort with an agency like NIMA/NTA affirms our strategy to target a wide range of high performance display markets.

Coupled with ongoing development of partnerships, continual improvement of our LEP technology and a pilot technology development facility in the UK, CDT is firmly positioned to leverage the opportunities of the growing OLED market".

According to research from DisplaySearch, organic light emitting diode display revenue is expected to grow from $24 million in 2000 to $3.3 billion by 2005.

The OLED display market consists of a wide range of electronics products that includes mobile phones, personal digital assistants, digital cameras, camcorders and eventually personal computers and consumer products.

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