Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) has acquired a California-based chip design firm which specialises in P-OLED/OLED display drivers.
The firm, called Next Sierra, will help CDT bring its latest Total Matrix Addressing (TMA) technology to market more quickly. "We are convinced that we need to move quickly to demonstrate the TMA concept in silicon," said Dr. David Fyfe, CEO of Cambridge Display Technology.
According to CDT, TMA is a technique to allow passive addressing in OLED displays for portable equipment. “Above an inch or so, conductive and capacitive losses make passive addressing difficult,” CDT marketing director Terry Nicklin told EW.
To get over this limitation, TMA can be used to address passively more than one row or column at a time. This cuts the peak current and therefore I2R losses. “Measurements with TMA on small passive matrix displays demonstrated at least a 50 per cent reduction in power consumption, or double the luminescence at the same power consumption,” said CDT, and makes passive addressing viable on phones, PDAs and small DVD players.
According to Next Sierra CEO Rich Page: "Becoming part of CDT is a natural evolution for Next Sierra. In TMA, CDT has an exciting technology with great OLED market potential. The Next Sierra team has the right mix of dedication and expertise to execute the design and commercialization of TMA driver chips in the minimum time possible."
In 2005 the US firm was awarded a $1m R&D project by the US Display Consortium to design and develop two ICs for active matrix organic light emitting diode displays (AM-OLED). The US Display Consortium was a private/public partnership developing the electronic display industry supply chain.
Under terms of the agreement, CDT will acquire Next Sierra's assets and key technical personnel for an undisclosed amount in CDT stock, with payment staged against technology development milestones to be achieved over the next twelve months.