Award to fund large-screen manufacture

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Aug 15, 2003

Screen Technology has won a Smart exceptional development project award to develop a pilot manufacturing line for its novel Itrans display technology.

Screen Technology has won a Smart exceptional development project award from the Department of Trade and Industry's Small Business Service to develop a pilot manufacturing line for its novel Itrans display technology.

The total value of the project is GBP 756,000.

Smart Exceptional Development awards are given to projects recognised as being of "strategic" importance for a technology or industrial sector.

ITrans allows displays of essentially unlimited size to be built from modules based around commodity LCDs, using an innovative approach that leaves no detectable joins.

The company has already built a 52in technology demonstrator.

The Smart award will enable the company to develop the pilot manufacturing process required to prove the viability of ITrans display manufacture.

A product quality prototype will be built during the project.

The availability of cost-effective products with good image quality will lead to broad acceptance of ITrans technology in the large displays market.

First ITrans products will be targeted at 70 to 200in diagonal video displays of at least SVGA resolution for the information and advertising sectors.

The technology offers the high brightness required for use in high ambient light environments such as shopping malls, transport terminals and corporate and hotel atriums together with high resolution, excellent viewability and an affordable price.

Other early market applications include video walls, ultra large televisions and virtual environments.

A number of additional 68in production prototype displays will be built to prove the stability of the process.

Some of these units will be offered to selected customers to enable them to fully evaluate ITrans technology.

ITrans is one of the final projects to be awarded Smart funding.

The scheme is being now phased out to be replaced in England by the Research and Development Grant Programme.

This will provide money to help individuals, and small and medium-sized businesses research and develop technologically innovative products and processes.