LCD firm cuts price with white backlightRichard WilsonCornwall-based Optoelectronic Manufacturing Corporation (OMC) says it has a range of LED-based white backlights which radically reduce the cost of illuminating LCDs in instrumentation and signs.
It is the ability to offer a white backlight using inherently low power and inexpensive LEDs which could make a significant impact on the design of daylight visible displays.
"The root chip now costs around 10p which means we can have sensible pricing for white LED backlights," said Stuart Heath, chairman of OMC, which manufactures its optoelectronic products at Redruth.
According to Heath, many white LED backlights are based on a multichip design which can be power hungry. The new design uses a combination of reflector and light deffuser which means that a single LED can illuminate panels up to 110 x 90mm.
"This is an important price and power breakthrough for many white backlight designs and I expect a strong demand for it," added Heath, who founded OMC 20 years ago to design and manufacture specialist fibre optic components.
Its customers include Philips, Grundig and GEC Alstom. As well as backlight, products include low cost comms links using plastic fibre and light pipes.