Clear screens for cell phones

Three-Five Systems is teaming up with Palo Alto-based Siliscape to bring to market LCD display technology for use in next-generation information appliances.

Three-Five, which does LCD display development and manufacturing,

Cell phones could use microdisplays to show email and other info. Here the display is attached to the bottom of the phone.

recently announced that it has acquired a 20 percent stake in Siliscape as part of an arrangement that may accelerate the production of next-generation "microdisplays."

The LCD readouts can be used in everything from medical devices to cell phones to digital cameras. Users would view the equivalent of a full-screen-sized Web page on their pagers and cell phones or pictures taken by a digital camera by looking into a view finder.

Three-Five said it will combine its manufacturing expertise with Siliscape's optical viewfinder technology to help bring the microdisplays to market within the next two to five years, depending on how quickly manufacturers decide to use the technology.

The small, custom microdisplays would be able to deliver a resolution ranging up to 1,280-by-1,024 pixels on a .8-inch diagonal display--the equivalent to the resolution found on a typical 17-inch CRT desktop monitor.

According to Three-Five, the displays work by reflecting light off a small piece of silicon. This silicon also controls the liquid crystals that form the viewable pattern.

Siliscape has worked to develop a display no more than half an inch thick that magnifies the image produced by the liquid crystals up to 30 times. The result, the companies claim, is a small display with high resolution that can be manufactured at a lower cost than possible with previous methods.