Ask any display scientist why we have not seen the advent of very large flat screen displays in sizes say 3 feet x 6 feet and they will tell you (beyond cost) …of the limits of physics and the efficiency of electron transport—physically addressing pixels over long distances.

Steve Sechrist
Senior Analyst and Editor

Not so, says Dr. Chad Moore, former Corning scientist and CTO of his own company now, Nupix, who has spent the last twelve years and the better part of a $2M grant from the state of NY (NYSERDA) to prove that the potential for very large displays is simply put "in the wire."

He and several colleagues have proven their technology and manufacturing processes using "keystone components" that empower two types of displays for the coming decade. Electroded sheets (eSheets) where the wires are embedded in a plastic substrate (that also happens to be rollable), and glass plasma tube arrays (PTA) where wire is co-drawn in extruded glass "preforms", which and can be addressed on ½-Kilometer-sized displays! (that’s six football fields long.)

The technology was born in the Corning labs a decade ago but abandoned by the company. Moore resurrected it and now holds exclusive rights to this patent and many other subsequent patents along the same lines.

The technology elegantly solves the low-cost / large size display problem and is ready for the next step—licensing and moving it into mass production and mass distribution. According to Moore, his wire-based flat panel displays (WFD for short) can change the face of the display industry. This is best shown graphically where plots of cost per area plotted on a chart show the present state of the technology as a parabola (see chart.) For example, in LCD technology, the cost per square foot decreases along with size with the optimal size at about 21-inch diagonal. Cost then begin rising creating the parabolic shape as LCD display size reaches the 108-inch size that tops out at over $1,500/sq. ft.

Moore said his large Tubular Plasma Display (TPD) technology extends the cost/size vector along the downward slope with efficiencies in display sizes starting at 3ft. x 6ft. and up. "The beauty of this tubular plasma display approach, is in its simplicity in manufacturing the display structure …no multi-layer alignment, no etching, no sand blasting, and no photolithography," said Moore.

Coincidentally, it also solves the two remaining issues in PDP display technology, bright room contrast, and weight." By adding color filters to the tubes, they absorb 66% of the incident light without decreasing brightness. Moore also recons a 100-inch diagonal TPD panel should weigh about 3 pounds!

According to Moore, weight savings come from that fact that the panel structure simply comprises attaching a PTA to a very thin eSheet. Attaching these two key display components can create a wall-sided color video display that can be rolled up around a pencil (a very long pencil indeed).

The other type of display is a large, reflective, bistable LCD. This energy-efficient LCD is created by simply sandwiching a Ch LC (cholesteric liquid crystal) material (from Kent Displays) between two orthogonal eSheets. These large eSheet Ch. LCDs can be made to support rollable and full color grayscale as well (but not full motion video.) Lenses can also be designed into the plasma tubes and eSheets to form 3D multi-view displays.

Moore believes his WFD technology is "best suited" for +100-inch diagonal and larger displays. While they can be made to support the more popular (smaller) panels, price competition in that space, plus the untapped demand for very large, relatively low cost electronic displays makes the territory above 100-inch diagonal a better fit (see the blue band in the chart above.)

As Moore puts it, "Nupix’s WFD manufacturing platform removes the complications of producing large size panels, and significantly reduces the manufacturing and upfront capital costs". Could this be the technology that brings the wall-sized display into the home, business or classroom? We plan to explore this technology further, so look for an expanded discussion of wire-based flat panel displays (WFD), with specific details on the technology, manufacturing, patents, and future plans for the technology in the coming issue of Large Display Report.