Jun 9 2014
Himax Technologies, Inc. ("Himax" or "Company"), a leading supplier and fabless manufacturer of display drivers and other semiconductor products, today announced the unveiling of its latest, propriety and patented liquid crystal on silicon ("LCoS") technology, Front-Lit™ LCoS.
Himax presented its new cutting-edge design for the first time to the public at The SID Display Week Conference held this week in San Diego. The new design represents one of the biggest technology breakthroughs of the head-mounted display industry.
Himax Display Incorporated ("HDI"), the majority-owned subsidiary of Himax Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq:HIMX), is currently attending the SID Conference. There, the Company introduced an integrated LCoS micro display module called Front-Lit™ LCoS. Himax's proprietary Front-Lit™ LCoS module enables an ultra-compact and extremely power-efficient optical engine by consolidating two major components of optical engine and integrating them into the micro display module itself. These include: 1) the LED illumination system, and 2) the polarization beam splitter (PBS). Himax's new Front-Lit™ LCoS design considerably reduces the size while greatly improving the power efficiency of the entire optical engine. Equally important, the proprietary design also enables a much simplified optical engine design and assembly process, thereby lowering customers' optical engine manufacturing time and costs. Himax's Front-Lit™ LCoS is unique in the market and has been patented by the Company.
Himax's Front-Lit™ LCoS has met the accelerating specifications of head-mounted technologies' display requirements such as a rich and bright image, a compact footprint, and low power consumption. Front-Lit™ LCoS produces over 10,000 nits of brightness and more than 50 nits/mW efficiency - the highest recorded ratio in the entire industry. The module also unites several new head-mounted technology requirements. These are: 1) a simplified optical engine manufacturing process similar to OLED's, 2)the high light efficiency of LCoS and, 3) the flexibility to adapt to various resolutions of LCoS. According to Himax's HDI team, Front-Lit™ LCoS is receiving significant interest by conference attendees including Himax's current roster of LCoS design clients and new entrants into the augmented-reality ("AR") and virtual-reality ("VR") technology space.
"To be successful and maintain our position in the market, innovation is a prerequisite", said Jordan Wu, CEO of Himax Technologies. "Our engineers push the technological envelop to match ever-increasing and challenging requirements by head-mounted technology designers. Our Front-Lit™ LCoS is our most recent technological breakthrough for head-mounted technology and the AR and VR markets under development. I am very proud of our team's new, innovative design and look forward to each new product they develop for our LCoS design-clients and future customers."
The design and production of Himax's LCoS displays spans more than a decade and includes brand-leading and specific application design clients and customers developing products for mass and niche markets. Himax currently maintains an in-house LCoS production facility in Taiwan which has a proven shipping record of up to 300,000 units per month. The Company has also stated that it can quickly expand capacity to up to 2.0 million units per month at their current location.
Source: http://www.himax.com.tw