Kopin's new breakthrough in shrinking display size

TAUNTON, USA: Kopin Corp., a leader in microdisplays for consumer and military applications, today announced a breakthrough in further shrinking the size of its color displays.

By shrinking the color dots to a mere 2.9 x 8.7 µm from the previously announced 3.75 x 11.25 µm, Kopin has achieved a full-color VGA display (600 x 480 resolution) in a 0.27” diagonal size, which is by far the smallest VGA color-filter liquid crystal display (LCD) in the world.

“Our new VGA display with the smallest color dot in the industry is a major milestone for Kopin’s technology roadmap to provide more compact, higher resolution and lower power consumption displays,” said Dr. Boryeu Tsaur, Kopin’s Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Display Business Unit. “This exciting achievement is enabled by our innovative process improvements and unique pixel design, and results in an additional 40% reduction in display size.”

“This small color dot size is an important achievement in our previously announced goal to create a 2048 x 2048-resolution display in a size smaller than a typical postage stamp,” said Dr. John C.C. Fan, Kopin’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “Using the same color dot size, we can create SVGA (800 x 600) displays in a 0.34” diagonal size, XGA (1024 x 768) displays in a 0.44” diagonal and SXGA (1280 x 1024) displays in a 0.56” diagonal size. These ultra-compact displays should be ideal for high-end digital still cameras requiring high-resolution electronic viewfinders.”

Kopin has two issued U.S. patents (#6,421,031 and 6,683,584) on the use of an LCD with a magnifying lens on a camera system. These patents include claims that are related to a camera having an active matrix LCD with red, green and blue light emitting elements, or viewing an image in a camera with an LCD having resolution equal to or higher than VGA.

These patents together with Kopin’s new compact, energy-efficient displays will strategically position Kopin in the emerging digital single-lens-reflex (DSLR) cameras with high-resolution electronic viewfinders.