WESTBOROUGH, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Kopin® Corporation (NASDAQ: KOPN), the largest U.S. developer of display systems for wearable technologies and military applications, today announces a new generation of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) that incorporate advanced designs and processing techniques to dramatically increase performance over prior generations of displays. The new Brillian product line incorporates an advanced pixel structure, newly formulated liquid crystal materials and enhanced manufacturing processes to produce unsurpassed image performance in applications requiring extreme high brightness.
“The Brillian LCD is the result of a multi-year development effort to satisfy the increasing performance requirements of our customers,” said President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. John C. C. Fan. “The Brillian product line offers the extreme brightness levels only possible with an LCD, while at the same time substantially boosting image contrast and lowering switching time. This breakthrough in performance will enable the further advancement and fielding of augmented reality products throughout the growing markets that we serve.”
“This new line of LCDs is ideally suited for very high brightness augmented reality applications such as visor projected pilot displays, integrated rifle scopes, soldier tactical displays, embedded training systems and outdoor maintenance displays” stated Bill Maffucci, the Company’s Vice President and General Manager of Government and Industrial Products. “The Brillian LCD microdisplays far exceed emissive devices in brightness, operating life and reliability which allows them to provide easy to read display information together with a clear view of the external scene under all lighting conditions from total darkness to bright sunlight.”
The Brillan displays with the advanced pixel structure have more than double the contrast ratio of conventional displays. Full-color Brillian displays exhibit contrast ratios higher than 500:1 and brightness levels greater than 34,000 cd/m2 (10,000 foot-lamberts). With the use of the newly formulated liquid crystal materials, switching time has been reduced by about 30% to a fraction of one frame time to eliminate any perceived symbology latency.
The Brillian displays are manufactured by Kopin’s proprietary NanoJet process at its Westborough Massachusetts facility. The NanoJet process releases tiny drops of liquid crystal material with great precision (variation within a few nanograms) and provides for a purer, better controlled and very uniform layering of the liquid crystal material in the fabrication of displays, resulting in superior image quality and higher brightness. The cell gap uniformity is also substantially improved to about 90% from about 70% for the conventional method. The uniform cell gap produces more consistent contrast ratio and viewing angle performance across the display area.
Samples of the Brillian display are available for select customers and production is expected to commence in the second quarter of 2018.
About Kopin
Kopin Corporation is a leading developer of innovative wearable computing technologies and solutions. Kopin’s technology portfolio includes ultra-small transmissive, reflective and emissive displays, optics, speech enhancement technology, software, low-power ASICs, and ergonomically designed smart headset concept systems. Kopin’s proprietary components and technology are protected by more than 300 global patents and patents pending. For more information, please visit Kopin’s website at www.kopin.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
Statements in this press release may be considered “forward-looking” statements under the “Safe Harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These include, without limitation, statements relating to our expectation that the breakthrough in performance will enable the further advancement and fielding of augmented reality products throughout the growing markets that we serve; the new line of LCDs is ideally suited for very high brightness augmented reality applications such as visor projected pilot displays, integrated rifle scopes, soldier tactical displays, embedded training systems and outdoor maintenance displays; and production of the Brillian displays is expected to commence in the second quarter of 2018. These statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the following: the breakthrough in performance may not enable the further advancement and fielding of augmented reality products; the markets we serve may not grow; the new line of LCDs may not be ideally suited for very high brightness augmented reality applications such as visor projected pilot displays, integrated rifle scopes, soldier tactical displays, embedded training systems and outdoor maintenance displays; we may encounter design or manufacturing issues which prevent us from manufacturing the new Brillian displays and therefore they may not be available in the second quarter of 2018 or ever; the Brillian displays may not work; the Company might be adversely affected by competitive products and pricing; manufacturing delays, technical issues, economic conditions or external factors may prevent the Company from achieving its goals; we could be delayed in shipping some of our products including the Brillian displays; and other risk factors and cautionary statements listed in the Company’s periodic reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the 12 months ended December 31, 2016, and the Company’s subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which are based only on information currently available to the Company and only as of the date on which they are made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this release.
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