Flatter. Brighter. Thinner. Different! Another Angle on Display's Future By Gary Arlen    March, 2004 President, Arlen Communications Published: March 29, 2004 at dealerscope.com DUNKIRK, MD. - "Contrast, Uniformity and Brightness" (call it the CUB criteria) is Ray Kwong's mantra as he explains the "ScramScreen", his company's vision for bringing the price of, let's say, a 52-inch flat display down to the $2,000 range. Moreover, prototype versions are barely seven-inches deep - further suggesting a breakthrough competitor to the LCD, DLP and plasma competitors now reaching the market. Predictably, Scram Technologies Inc., the Maryland company that Kwong heads, is juggling its engineering agenda with marketplace realities, like any tech-centric start-up. It has signed a licensing agreement with Samsung to manufacture the ScramScreen, and is seeking additional partners. The company's financial credentials are impressive, including investments from and/or board positions for Rick Sharp, Circuit City's CEO during its boom years. A former top Kodak executive and several politically wired investors are on Kwong's board of directors, too. Although a consumer electronics product is currently atop its agenda, ScramTech is also looking at military displays, outdoor signage and billboards and medical imaging as ancillary markets for its devices. As the name suggests, the ScramScreen is a display device. It can be fueled by a variety of light engines, with Kwong particularly enthusiastic about Intel's new Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCOS) chips that would bring the price down into the sub-$4,000 (maybe even sub-$2,000) range. The screen itself uses inexpensive polycarbonate sheets of optically clear acrylic. Bonded to the back of this plastic sheet is Scram's light-directly film-proprietary planar waveguides that transmit light directly to the viewing surface with virtually no loss of brightness. As a result, the device can deliver rear screen projection at a very acute angle-nearly 90 degrees, thus enabling the thin profile. On the screen's front is a proprietary coating that totally absorbs ambient light. As a result, the displayed image is as bright in a well-lit setting as in a dark room, with exceptional contrast (the C and B characteristics in the CUB mantra). The U for uniformity comes from the consistent image across the screen, and the consistency of image quality from all viewing angles, even to the 180-degree edge of the screen. Kwong politely sneers at competitors who are pushing high-gain screens, contending that such solutions "narrow the viewing angle," violating his "uniformity" passion. Kwong, an Annapolis graduate and retired Navy officer (with impressive sea duty), is moving into the consumer electronics realm after entrepreneurial ventures on behalf of those "three-letter agencies" so common in nearby Washington, D.C. His passion for highest-tech capacity reflects his military training, but his desire for a low-cost solution seems to reject the "any price" philosophy of his former clientele. Indeed, Kwong and his tech team (fewer than 15 engineers) is focusing on inexpensive technology as a breakthrough into the big-screen display market. That's one reason for his fondness for the Intel LCOS chip, although he insists that ScramTech is "imager agnostic." Scram Technologies is far from alone in pursuing ways to lower the price and expand the capability of big/flat screen products. Other start-ups and familiar vendors are accelerating their efforts to replace the near-ubiquitous cathode-ray tube at affordable prices. Early last month, Corning unveiled plans to spend $600 million in the next two years to expand its manufacturing capacity in Asia for substrates used in LCD panels. Corning cited the "strong market" for larger LCD TV units, which is driving demand for the so-called "Gen 6-size" substrates. The new investment will help Corning double its capacity to make these substrates for big monitors. Meanwhile, interest in Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) continues to simmer. Kodak has branded its technology "NuVue" and duPont adopted "Olight" for their respective versions of OLED. OLEDs are self-luminous, which means they do not require the backlighting, diffusers or polarizers of conventional displays. Also joining the line-up are Nano-Emissive Displays and electrowetting systems that help present video images on paper-like sheets. As all these display alternatives move toward the marketplace, competitive claims are already weaving into the dialogue about capabilities. For example, one integrator of display technology lists nearly a dozen factors that make OLEDs preferable to LCDs, including greater brightness, faster response time for full motion video, lighter weight, more power efficiency and greater environmental durability. All that plus a 160-degree "viewing cone"-in other words, little degradation when seen from a sharp angle. Sony-despite its current financial ailments-agreed recently to share the cost with Samsung of a $2 billion factory in Korea to manufacture "seventh-generation glass," the next wave of "amorphous substrates" that will be used for large-screen monitors by 2005. Meanwhile, another Samsung subsidiary is working with Semtech Corp. to develop proprietary power management chips for high-speed displays. Philips began touting its electrowetting technology a few months ago. The format could create paper-like displays that show images at video speeds. The Dutch researchers toyed with images using pixels as small as 500-by-500 microns, with reflectivity greater than 40 percent and contrast ratios of 15 and brighter. It's an eyeful, although commercial rollout plans, either for TV or computer applications, hasn't been determined. At CES in January, comedian Jay Leno observed that flat-screen TVs are arriving at the same time that Americans recognize the national obesity plague. Leno said that screens are getting thinner as viewers are getting fatter. But he didn't offer any preferences or awareness of the numerous options becoming available. Nor could he-or anyone-yet handicap the winners or favored features as the next generation of big, flat, bright screens enter the marketplace. About SCRAM Technologies, Inc. SCRAM Technologies, Inc. was founded in 1998 to develop, manufacture and market a revolutionary, passive display technology that provides high contrast, high brightness, interactivity, wide viewing angles, modularity and more. This technology, which the Company has designated as "SCRAMscreen® Technology" is a versatile, multifunctional, display technology. SCRAMscreens® can be used for everything from traditional rear projection displays to cutting edge HDTV/Digital flat panel displays; from seamless, tiled outdoor display applications to curved, interactive, high-contrast dashboards and instrumentation panels. Whether it is a curved viewing environment, or a simultaneous multi-imagery projection display, SCRAMscreen® technology provides a performance enhancing, cost effective, platform for innovation in display applications. SCRAM Technologies' corporate offices are located at 2827 Chesapeake Beach Rd., Dunkirk, MD 20754. Other information about SCRAM Technologies is available via the World Wide Web at http://www.scramtech.com.