Pixel Qi strikes Taiwan LCD foundry deal

LONDON – Fabless liquid crystal display developer Pixel Qi Corp. has announced it has struck a manufacturing partnership with Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd. (CPT) of Taiwan.

Pixel Qi (San Bruno, Calif.) and CPT (Taoyuan, Taiwan) are now developing three screens of various sizes due to reach the market at various times during 2011. The companies are aiming the sunlight-readable LCD technology at smartphones, tablets and notebooks.

Pixel Qi is known for LCD screens that can be operated in black-and-white reflective mode (with the backlight switched off) in ambient light, allowing for up to 80 percent power savings compared with back-lit screens.

The company is a spin-off from the One Laptop per Child project (OLPC) where this screen technology was initially developed for the $100 laptop; nearly 3 million screens using the technology have now been shipped over three years.

The alliance with CPT was formed in 2010 after Pixel Qi saw CPT exhibiting a design of transflective LCD screen, according to Mary Lou Jepsen, CEO and founder of Pixel Qi. Since then the two companies have worked together and created samples of 7-inch 1024×600 screens scheduled for mass production early in Q2 2011.

CPT manufactures nearly 40 million screens per month, and is the second-largest mid-size LCD manufacturer in the world and according to Jepsen: "This represents an expansion of Pixel Qi's manufacturing strength beyond its first LCD manufacturing partner who has been making 10-inch screens for Pixel Qi."

"This great alliance will bring out a robust sequence of exciting screens during 2011 and it's an exciting development for the whole industry," Jepsen quoted Belle Fu, vice president of manufacturing at Pixel Qi, as saying.


Related links and articles:

www.pixelqi.com

www.cptt.com.tw