Update: CDT Acquires Assets of Next Sierra, a P-OLED/OLED Display Driver Chip Design House (Jan. 4, 2007)
Acquisition Will Accelerate CDT's Development of Total Matrix Addressing Chip
CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom, Jan. 4, 2007 -- Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) (Nasdaq:OLED) today announced it has acquired the assets of Next Sierra, Inc., a Mountain View, California-based hardware developer that specializes in designing P-OLED/OLED display driver chips.
"The response from the OLED industry to our announcement of Total Matrix Addressing(tm) (TMA) technology last month convinced us that we needed to move quickly to demonstrate the TMA concept in silicon," said Dr. David Fyfe, CEO of Cambridge Display Technology. "With more than 80
years combined engineering experience and as a recognized expert in the development of P-OLED/OLED display driver chips, Next Sierra has considerable experience in OLED driver development and its CEO, Rich Page, is a seasoned chip designer with an impressive track record in development and delivery, as founder of both NeXT Computer and Sierra Research and Technology and as one of the very first Apple Fellows. We believe that Rich and his team are a superb match that will enable CDT to develop this technology in the shortest timescale possible, allowing us to accelerate commercialization of TMA's breakthrough passive matrix driver technology."
Next Sierra CEO Rich Page said, "Becoming part of CDT is a natural evolution for Next Sierra. In TMA, CDT has an exciting technology with great OLED market potential. The Next Sierra team has the right mix of dedication and expertise to execute the design and commercialization of TMA driver chips in the minimum time possible."
Under terms of the agreement, CDT will acquire Next Sierra Inc.'s assets and key technical personnel for an undisclosed amount in CDT stock, with payment staged against technology development milestones to be achieved over the next twelve months.
About Total Matrix Addressing(tm) (TMA)
TMA is a technology which potentially can be incorporated into driver chips to bring Active Matrix (AM) capabilities to Passive Matrix (PM) displays. Prior to the announcement of TMA, it had been thought that larger OLED displays would only be feasible by using Active Matrix technology incorporating an expensive Thin-Film Transistor (TFT) layer. Passive Matrix displays, which are driven by cheaper external chips, were thought to be restricted to smaller screen sizes. TMA reduces power consumption and enhances panel lifetime for a given pixel count in passive matrix displays. Measurements on small passive matrix displays that incorporated the TMA solution, demonstrated at least a 50% reduction in power consumption or exhibited double the display
luminescence at the same power consumption. The TMA driving system applies both to polymer and small molecule OLED displays.
About CDT
Cambridge Display Technology is a pioneer in the development of polymer organic light emitting diodes (P-OLEDs) and their use in a wide range of electronic display products used for information management, communications and entertainment. P-OLEDs are part of the family of OLEDs, which are thin, lightweight and power efficient devices that emit light when an electric current flows. P-OLEDs offer an enhanced visual experience and superior performance characteristics compared with other flat panel display technologies such as liquid crystal displays, and have the key advantage that they can be applied in solution using printing processes. Founded in 1992, the company is headquartered in Cambridge, UK and listed on the US NASDAQ National Market under the symbol 'OLED'. In 2005, CDT and Sumitomo Chemical established a joint venture called
Sumation(r) which develops, manufactures and sells P-OLED materials to the display industry.
