USDC Contracts with Next Sierra to Develop OLED Driver Chips

Update: CDT Acquires Assets of Next Sierra, a P-OLED/OLED Display Driver Chip Design House (Jan. 4, 2007)

SAN JOSE, Calif., March 24, 2005 - The U.S. Display Consortium (USDC), a private/public partnership developing the electronic display industry supply chain, today announced an award to Next Sierra of Mountain View, California. The purpose of the $1M cost-shared R&D project is to design and develop two versions of an integrated circuit for active matrix organic light emitting diode displays (AM-OLED). The Next Sierra contract further establishes USDC's support for OLED manufacturing.

Display driver chips control the current applied to illuminate each display pixel and control the gray scale level. OLEDs are among the newest types of flat panel displays (FPDs) and have unique requirements. While most FPDs, such as the liquid crystal displays (LCDs), are voltage-controlled technologies, the OLED is a current-controlled device and thus requires a somewhat different driver architecture, providing discrete pre-charge, drive and discharge stages.

For OLEDs to enter mainstream markets, control of pixel luminance will be crucial, according to Bob Pinnel, USDC's chief technology officer. Pixel luminance can vary with device aging and these unique IC designs are intended to be able to correct for drifts in luminance levels of up to 25 percent. The USDC-funded project with Next Sierra will result in two chips, one to drive the electronic backplanes that are made with the lower cost amorphous silicon transistors and the other for backplanes using higher performance poly-silicon transistors. "Next Sierra is very pleased to receive this USDC contract award and we look forward to applying our corporate expertise to solve this critical performance issue that will enable full color OLED display to become a viable product," stated Richard Page, the company's president.

The USDC R&D program is a collaborative effort of private industry and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, located in Adelphi, MD.

About the U.S. Display Consortium
The USDC is an industry-led public/private partnership providing a common platform for flat panel display manufacturers and developers, FPD users, and the supplier base.

Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., the consortium's primary mission is to fund supply-chain projects and share the results with USDC member companies. The USDC also provides a communication channel among industry, government and the financial communities for display issues; sponsors workshops to broaden the impact of technological developments; and educates consumers on the importance of displays in providing access to information technology. More information can be found at www.usdc.org

About Next Sierra
From concept to silicon, Next Sierra, Inc. designs innovative hardware products in the areas of networking, data communications, storage devices and consumer electronics. In addition to these areas, Next Sierra has the experience and capability to undertake customer initiated projects involving analog circuits, mixed analog-digital design, mixed voltage design, high voltage design and complex digital circuit design. More information can be found at www.nextsierra.com