TMOS technology could rival LCD, OLED and plasma displays by 2008

A new display technology currently in prototype form is seeking to take a hold of the TV display market, hoping to rival the likes of LCD, OLED, and plasma technology, claiming simpler construction and better performance.

Time Multiplexed Optical Shutter (TMOS) technology has been developed by UniPixel Displays Inc, and (put as simply as I can) works on a temporal additive colour system.

Existing displays use spatial additive colour, using three closely spaced dots of red, blue and green to produce what the human eye perceives as a single colour. Temporal additive colour works by sending short bursts of red, green and blue through the same dot at a fast enough speed so that eye sees them as a single colour. Different durations of the three colours produce different shades and hues.

The EETimes continues:

According to Killion, a UniPixel display consists of just six layers, compared with 15 for plasma and 30 for LCDs, and takes only 12 steps to manufacture, versus 128 steps for an LCD. Using a "frustrated total internal reflection" technique, red, green or blue light enters a light guide from the edge of the display. The display structure enables daylight readability.

The colors cycle for an equal amount of time in very rapid succession, reflecting off a mirror at the opposite edge that scatters the light and produces a uniform distribution across the display. Materials used in the construction of the light guide keep light from escaping, so that total internal reflection is achieved, according to the company.

A simple lens/shutter mechanism is constructed above the light guide by sandwiching the microlens and standoff layers between transparent conductors. When the two conductive layers are oppositely charged at any given pixel, they attract. The lens is squeezed down through the standoff layer.

When it touches the light guide, the pixel is activated, and light escapes at that point. The duration of the charge controls the opening and closing of the "shutter." At any given pixel, this duration determines the relative intensity of the color.

UniPixel expects to begin fighting with current technologies for a slice of the lucrative flat-panel TV market as early as 2008. That might be a bit optimistic, but this certainly looks like a technology worth keeping an eye on.

UniPixel