UMC Silicon Wafer Production

21 Mar 2005 07:00

MicroEmissive Displays Group PLC21 March 2005 MED starts silicon wafer production at UMC for microdisplay ICs Edinburgh, Scotland, 21 March, 2005--MicroEmissive Displays Group plc ("MED" or"the Group") a designer and manufacturer of low-power microdisplays usingorganic light emitting polymers (polymer OLED) announces that it has commencedproduction of silicon wafers that will be used to produce patent protectedmicrodisplays at UMC, a world leading semiconductor foundry. This silicon production effort follows UMC's successful fabrication of a CMOSprocess customised for use in MED's polymer OLED microdisplays. MED'smicrodisplays are aimed at a variety of consumer devices such as viewfinders fordigital cameras, night viewers and mobile phones. Commenting on the development, Bill Campbell, CEO of MED, said, "This is thefirst step in MED's plan to start volume production for our customers. The factthat UMC, one of the world's leading contract manufacturers of semiconductors,has committed resources and production capacity is a strong validation of ourtechnology and prospects." Henry Liu, head of the New Business Development Group at UMC, said, "We arehappy to cooperate with MED to deliver the process technology needed to helpbring their promising microdisplay ICs to market. MED is a leader in theirfield, and we are pleased to work with them as their foundry service provider." Enquiries MicroEmissive DisplaysBill Campbell, CEO 0131 650 7764Alan Bennie, CFO Corfin CommunicationsHarry Chathli, Neil Thapar 0207 929 8989 Notes to Editor About MicroEmissive Displays MED is a leading developer and manufacturer of polymer OLED microdisplays.Founded in 1999, it has developed a unique emissive microdisplay technology byusing polymer OLED on a CMOS substrate. The company was admitted to AIM, theAlternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange in November 2004,raising £15.7M. MED is headquartered at the Scottish Microelectronics Centre,Edinburgh, Scotland and has established sales channels in Taiwan and Japan. About UMC UMC (NYSE: UMC, TSE: 2303) is a leading global semiconductor foundry thatmanufactures advanced process ICs for applications spanning every major sectorof the semiconductor industry. UMC delivers cutting-edge foundry technologiesthat enable sophisticated system-on-chip (SOC) designs, including 90nm copper,0.13um copper, and mixed signal/RFCMOS. UMC is also a leader in 300mmmanufacturing; Fab 12A in Taiwan and Singapore-based UMCi are both in volumeproduction for a variety of customer products. UMC employs over 10,500 peopleworldwide and has offices in Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Europe, and the UnitedStates. UMC can be found on the web at http://www.umc.com. About MED Microdisplays Microdisplays are very small active-matrix displays capable of displayingTV-quality pictures and viewed under optical magnification. Incumbentmicrodisplay technologies, mostly based on liquid crystal, require the supportof additional driver ICs and optical components such as backlights, polarizersand beam-splitters. MED's approach takes away the need of these supportcomponents while offering reduced power consumption, longer battery life andother advantages. Microdisplays are currently used as Electronic Viewfinders (EVF'S) in almost allcamcorders, and many digital still cameras. Future uses are likely to include 3Gcell phones, hands-free kits, toys, games and consumer-price headsets forcomputer games and personal DVD players. About Organic LEDs According to market data from DisplaySearch the organic light emitting diode(OLED) display technology that MED uses is set challenge the ubiquitous LCDtechnology over the next few years, with OLEDs expected to have a 110% CAGR andreach a market value of $2.2 billion by 2006. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange