LCOS Goes 1080p

[Gregg Lengling]

Liquid Crystal on Silicon or LCOS technology is clearly hot in the HDTV market. MicroDisplay Corporation announced last week that it his introduced a single panel 1920 x 1080 LCOS microdisplay with resolution of two million pixels. The company says the new chip is designed for front and rear projection televisions.

Microdisplay says the new "E-HD" LCOS imaging chip is a mere 21mm (0.82") measured diagonally and claims that it is the smallest single panel LCOS with high definition resolution on the market. Aimed at the 40" and larger rear projection television market, the company says that the LCOS display chipset comes complete with a single chip controller IC and a full programming graphical user interface for speedy evaluation and design.

According to Insight Media analyst Chris Chinnock, the E-HD chip set "will help accelerate the move to 1080p based systems. This is where LCOS will probably find its best competitive advantage, and the small device size of E-HD and the single-panel architecture, should enable very cost competitive products to reach the market in 2004." Chinnock also suggests that if pricing for a 1080p LCOS-RPTV can fall below the $2000 price point within a year after introduction, "it will have a major impact on the market."

MicroDisplay's Sandeep Gupta adds "We have been working with LCOS technology for several years, and the E-HD chipset gives system builders worldwide a powerful display chip and controller chip with resolutions of 1080p, delivering television images that are as sharp and crisp as photographs. Our early customers and partners have reviewed the chipset over the past five months, and the early engine designs we are starting to see from them are realizing the high efficiency and display quality achievable with a fast single-panel LCOS."