As Reported By ElectricNews.Net Ltd. - Ntera Shakes Up The LCD Business

By Deirdre McArdle

The humble grey LCD screen which appears in parking meters and clocks could be replaced with a brighter, whiter model thanks to Irish firm Ntera.

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The Dublin-based nanotechnology firm has developed what are called NanoChromics displays (NCDs), which can make screens on products such as calculators, alarm clocks and white goods -- such as kitchen appliances -- look exactly like ink on paper and act like an intelligent display.

The advantages of this technology are many, Dan Wood, business development manager for Europe with Ntera, told ElectricNews.Net. "You don't loose the image or experience colour distortion when looking at an NCD screen from different angles in the same way that occurs with LCD screens," said Wood, who also pointed how easy it will be to read text or numbers on NCD screens compared to LCD screens, whose constant flickering can be tiring for the brain.

Other benefits over traditional displays such as LCD and the costly organic light emitting diode (OLED) technologies include low power consumption, as well as improved switching speed -- the speed at which the text can be changed.

From an aesthetic point of view these displays will be a step up from the dull grey slab of the LCD screen. And now that white is the new black, thanks mainly to the efforts of Apple and iPod music player, consumers and manufacturers alike are likely to embrace this technology from Ntera.

"Manufacturers are expressing great interest in the NCDs," said Wood. "The brightness of the displays are a lot less limiting than the omnipresent dull grey slab they've had to put up with until now."

Although Ntera's technology is currently only commercially available for the low-resolution display market products such as clocks and parking meters, the firm is also currently attempting to access the potentially lucrative high-resolution display market, which includes notebooks, PDAs and perhaps even iPods. But this eventuality is a while away yet as this type of technology is time-consuming to develop, according to Wood.

Largely alone in this particular market segment, the future looks bright for Ntera, which also holds a strong intellectual property position for this kind of technology.