At the Society for Information Display Conference in Boston earlier in the week, Greg Truman, managing director of CRLO Displays (Dalgety Bay, Scotland), told EE Times during an interview that further improvements in microdisplay light sources and optics could reduce component costs as much as 50 percent within the next three years. This would enable the microdisplay industry to bring out a 42-inch microdisplay-based TV for as little as $999, Truman said.

"We believe the microdisplay will be the choice above 40 in.," added Leslie Polgar, recently named chief executive of CRLO Displays after serving as founding president of Eastman Kodak's Display Products business.

Polgar and Truman face the challenge of trying to take the company's patented FLCOS technology, currently used for advanced military simulation and training systems, into the commercial world of projection TVs.

FLCOS is built on a CMOS silicon backplane and can generate full-motion, full-color 24-bit images from a single microdisplay. It delivers 720-pixel high-definition TV and SXGA (1280 x 1024 pixel) PC video at frame rates of 60 Hz and above.

Given the rapidly falling prices of plasma TV screens and the gradual penetration of LCDs into the 40-inch market, competition will likely be stiff for CRLO and its rivals serving the microdisplay TV market. But armed with new management and an infusion of funding, the company believes it can compete in an increasingly crowded market.

Based on Dalgety Bay, Scotland, CRLO Displays was formed in September 2004 by European investors Amadeus Capital and Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures with $19 million in funding. The venture group purchased the company, formerly known as CRL Opto, from Scipher.