CDT shows first colour polymer screen

Cambridge Display Technologies (CDT) says it has produced a full colour screen using the company's patented Light Emitting Polymer (LEP) technology. LEP technology is intended to provide a lower cost mechanism for producing large, colour flat panel displays than can be achieved via current technology. CDT announced a mono display in February, produced via a joint development deal with Seiko-Epson. The latest display is a 3in square striped backlight made from red and green LEPs. Colour is achieved by sequential switching between the red and green fields of the backlight in synchronisation with driving a ferroelectric liquid crystal display. This system, says CDT, replaces the white flourescent backlight and colour filter components used in current LCDs. A future development is intended to be a full colour display using ink-jet patterning of LEPs. CDT has received £750,000 in research funding from the UK Department of Trade and Industry, and boasts one of the world's wackier investor lists. These include Intel, Genesis (the group, honest...), Queen Esther Dyson, Acorn founder Hermann Hauser, former Power Computing president Steve Kahng, and the Sculley brothers. The Sculley brothers, you ask? John and Arthur, who's less famous than John, but isn't responsible for bolloxing Newton either. ®