OLED display driver - Page 11

Leadis Technology today announced sample availability of the LDS522, a 65K color OLED driver IC. The LDS522 65k color OLED driver IC is a highly-integrated high-performance device with integrated display RAM, on-chip oscillator, DC/DC converter, and temperature sensor to insure optimal visual performance.

In addition, the LDS522 includes programmable display features such as area scrolling, partial display, and color depth selection for enhanced screen performance.

MagnaChip announced that the company established an R&D Center in Tokyo, Japan, for its Large Display Driver IC (DDI) business.

The new R&D center's strategic location will enable MagnaChip to even more effectively target the broader Asian Market. The focus will be on providing dedicated research and development of large TFT-LCD and OLED drivers ICs for larger applications such as TV and PC monitors. The center is staffed by seven technology, development and engineering experts from the local Japanese market. Several application engineers are expected to be added later in the year.

Leadis Technology enhanced its OLED porfolio with production-volume shipments of a new OLED display driver IC, the LDS518 aimed for MP3 and mobile phone applications.

The LDS518 is a high-performance, highly-integrated device featuring 16K- bit of display RAM (128 x 64 x 2 bit), an on-chip oscillator and flexible frame frequency adjustment without the need for external components. The LDS518 has a maximum resolution of 128 x 64 and allows programmable display features such as divided area display with flashing function per divided area and two screen saver modes, which are critical for extending OLED display lifetime, extending mobile device battery life, and reducing the need for additional software development to support these functions.

Leadis Technology, a mixed-signal semiconductor developer of display driver ICs for small panel color displays, today announced results for the fourth quarter of 2005, ended December 31, 2005. Revenues for the fourth quarter were $21.5 million, up 22% from $17.6 million in the third quarter but down 36% from $33.3 million for the same period in 2004.

OLED sales were flat with the prior quarter and declined to 25% of revenue.

Two new products moved into volume production status: The LDS517, a driver for 262K color OLED displays with rich color performance primarily for MP3 players. This product currently serves some of Creative Lab's newest MP3 players.

Displaychips Inc has launched an OLED driver chip (DC3100), which is said to integrate DC-DC converter for the first time in the world. The chip doesn't need an additional external DC-DC converter to drive the passive-matrix OLEDs, resulting in 10 to 15% cost reduction of the module assembly.

Based on a 0.20µm CMOS process, the chip adopts a low current consumption algorithm backed by a patented technology. The pre-charge technology is said to reduce power consumption to 50% of the established OLED driver ICs.

National Semiconductor Corp has introduced a small dual step-up DC-DC converter that drives up to five white LEDs with a constant current or an organic LED display with a constant voltage.

Well-suited for handheld devices such as flip and clam-shell cell phones and digital cameras, the LM3520 step-up converter uses pulse width modulation (PWM) mode to drive the LEDs and pulse frequency modulation (PFM) mode to drive the organic LED display. When driving the LEDs, a single external resistor is used to set the maximum LED current. The actual LED current and the brightness can be adjusted by applying a PWM signal to the enable pin. When the LED drive is disabled, the LED string is disconnected on the low side so that there is no leakage current through the LEDs.

Revenues of $13.5 million for the second quarter of 2005 were in line with the guidance provided at the last earnings call and reflected a 17% increase sequentially from $11.6 million in the first quarter of 2005. Under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), second quarter net loss was $2.6 million as compared to a net loss of $2.5 million in the first quarter of 2005. Net loss per basic share was $0.09 as compared to a net loss per basic share of $0.09 in the first quarter of 2005.

OLED and TFT sales accounted for approximately 40% and 10% of revenue respectively.

OLED unit shipments increased by about 80% over the prior quarter, largely due to renewed interest from the handset market.

Cambridge Display Technology has reached an agreement with IBM Corp. to market IBM's advanced amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin-film-transistor (TFT) technology for organic-light-emitting-diode (OLED) displays.

CDT will market IBM's IP in TFT devices, pixel circuitry, drive methods, and active-matrix OLED display modeling for display applications. IBM will manage technology licensing agreements.

Toppoly has introduced the 2.5 AMOLED and the 1.8 System-On-Panel. The 2.5 full color AMOLED module is based on an LTPS backplane and features integrated driving circuitry, producing a light, thin and compact display module. The product integrates scan and data driver ICs onto the panel. The module supports a resolution of 640x240 in 262K colors with a 130-pixel pitch and is suitable for DSC, DVC and portable multimedia devices.

The 1.8 System-On-Panel LTPS TFT-LCD supports 65K/262K colors at a resolution of 128xRGBx160, and integrates the scanning circuitry (both horizontally and vertically), Level Shifter, and DC-DC Converter onto the panel.

Solomon Systech Limited unveiled, SSD1335 and SSD1338, the OLED driver ICs with integrated controller. They have a built-in DC-DC voltage converter, a 16-steps master current control, a 256-steps contrast control for three-color components and embedded SRAM. SSD1335 supports up to 132 RGB x 88 x 18 bits resolution OLED panel and SSD1338 supports up to 132 RGB x 132 x 18 bits resolution OLED panel, which provides 262K color to display.

SSD1335 and SSD1338 also feature 18-bits controller for color passive common cathode type OLED/PLED panel. The ICs also feature contrast setting, column and row re-mapping, programmable multiplex ratio and vertical scrolling. It provides functions such as, line drawing, rectangle drawing, copy-&-paste image, dimming window and clearing window, etc.