The Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) today
signed a $29, 251,936 cost-shared agreement with The Next Generation
Electroluminescent Display Consortium, led by Planar America Inc., Beaverton,
Ore., to develop material and process technologies for high resolution. The
government's share of funding is $14,625,968; $8,025,968 is being awarded at
this time. The balance of the agreement is funded by industry. This project
is sponsored under the Technology Reinvestment Project (TRP).
Additional consortium members are: Advanced Technology Materials Inc.,
Danbury, Conn.; Allied Signal Aerospace Inc., Columbia, Md.; the Boeing
Company, Seattle, Wash.; CVC Products Inc., Fremont, Calif.; Computing
Devices Canada Ltd., Ottawa, Canada; Georgia Technical Research Corporation,
Atlanta, Ga.; Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, Calif.; Honeywell Inc.,
Minneapolis, Minn.; Oregon State University, Corvallis, Ore.; Positive
Technologies Inc., San Diego, Calif.; and University of Florida, Gainesville,
Fla. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, Calif., and Los Alamos
National Laboratory, Los Alamos, N.M., are also participating as subcontractors
to Planar America.
Electroluminescent displays are widely used in military applications where
their ruggedness, wide operating temperature range and viewing angle are
required. Over 15,000 thin-film electroluminescent displays are used in
military systems such as the MIA2 tank and Trident submarine. Active-matrix
electroluminescent displays are used as miniature, head-mounted displays in
several DoD programs, including the Army's Combat Vehicle Crew helmet, 21st
Century Land Warrior, and Generation II Soldier.
This effort will establish low-cost, flexible, next-generation processes for
the manufacturing of thin-film electroluminescent and active-matrix
electroluminescent flat-panel displays. In addition, the program will result
in advances in display resolution, power efficiency and brightness, expanding
the applications where electroluminescent technology can be used.
