Helping to Ring the Changes in Our Mobile Phone Use
16 February 2001   

The Scotsman – February 16, 2001 - Dr Jeff Wright and MED aim to revolutionise the technology used in our everyday lives as well as creating skilled jobs for Scotland's workers, writes Andrew Murray-Watson of The Scotsman. Mobile phones. Love them or loath them, they are here to stay and most people would rather be parted from a small appendage than their Nokia or Ericsson.

But within a few years, the mobile will become much more than a device for talking to people while on the hoof. With the advent of broadband, it will be possible to conduct banking transactions, speak face to face with people on the other side of the planet and even watch a game of football through your phone.

One Edinburgh-based company is developing the technology that will help make this futuristic vision a reality within a few years. MicroEmissive Displays (MED) is one of Scotland’s burgeoning optoelectronic players that promise to become household names in the next decade. It is developing technology that will enable mobile phone screens to show TV quality images.

MED’s work is centred around a new generation of crystals called "organic light emitting diodes" or "organic electroluminescent displays" (OLED). They are grown from simple chemicals including oxygen, carbon and nitrogen, and emit light from the total surface, rather than just around the edges. They require less power and can display high-resolution video colour images.

Conventional LED screens - such as those currently seen in mobile phones or calculators - consist of crystal grown in complex chemical compounds. The crystals are sliced and then mounted onto computer chips. When an electric current is passed through them, they emit light from the edges. These displays require a relatively high amount of power and can only emit rectangular blocks of light.

Set up last year by Dr Ian Underwood and Dr Jeff Wright, MED is chaired by Vision Group founder Peter Denyer. It currently has 13 staff, rising to 16 by the end of next month. In July last year, the firm moved into the Scottish Microelectronics Centre - an £8.2 million joint venture between Edinburgh University and Scottish Enterprise.

The centre includes 10 "clean-room" laboratories for cutting electronic research. Four months later MED secured £1.5 million funding from venture capital firm 3i. Unlike most other firms in the optoelectronics sector, MED is determined to manufacture its products in-house. It is fortunate to have the technological support of Edinburgh and Napier Universities, which are both major shareholders.

Wright, 33, the executive technical director of the company, who has a degree in chemistry and a PHD in advanced materials from Napier University, says: "Manufacture generates the highest revenues. This is a new technology and the process of integrating the technology with silicon chips involves a lot of IP.

"We are drawing heavily on Peter’s [Denyer] experience with Vision. The manufacturing allows us to take control of our IP and erect a barrier to any attempts to copy it." The company is looking for a chief executive to lead it through the next funding round, where it will be seeking to secure in excess of £5 million. A finance director will follow.

"Its going to be pretty difficult to get the right person," says Wright. "We are searching globally for someone who has an impressive track record, a sphere of experience in the display or semi-conductor industry and with a sales background.

As well as the product, he will have to sell the company to investors and end users." 3i are believed to be keen to remain the principle supporter of MED in the next funding round. However, Wright added that industry partners could also add value to the business. "We would be interested in talking to a potential OLEM customer or somebody who can help our supply chain," says Wright.

In a very young market, consolidation between optoelectronics firms seems inevitable as an increasing number reach the marketplace, but Wright added: "We are not looking to build the business as an acquisition target.

"We are building a manufacturing operation that can stand on its own two feet. If we can do that, there will a number of probable scenarios. We could look to be snapped up, or we could go for IPO and try to acquire others. That sounds much more fun to me."

The first revenue streams will kick in next year, when low volume manufacturing begins. The displays, which are only 10mm in length, are built on eight inch wafers. Chips for the displays are produced in the Far East and shipped back to Scotland where they are integrated with the displays. At full capacity next year, MED hopes to churn out six wafers a day - 5,000 units.

Initially these displays will be used in viewfinders for digital cameras. "We can offer something that needs less power and provides higher resolution and at comparable cost," says Wright. Eventually it will be incorporated into 3G mobile phones, wearable computers, headset DVD players and high-tech toys and video games.

"The image on a MED microdisplay can be comfortably viewed by being close to the eye via a simple lens which magnifies the image to a larger size. Magnification does not noticeably reduce the image quality. Power consumption and price increases exponentially with active matrix display size," says Wright.

Next generation devices using wireless Bluetooth technology, will allow for MED’s technology to be incorporated into eyepieces and other hand-free applications.

"Our technology is particularly suited to consumer applications," says Wright. "Take the toy market for example. With our technology somebody could make a Teletubbies doll which actually has a working TV in its stomach. Toy producers have design freedom and will fit the product around the technology."

Although reluctant to mention the names of the companies that have approached MED, Wright hinted that several multinationals had already shown a strong interest.

Surrounded by technical gizmos of all hues, it would be easy to think that Wright’s driving motivation is a love of futuristic gadgetry. "Actually I am a bit of a Luddite," he replies. "But with any luck we will be able to create 50 manufacturing jobs, and that is really exciting."

With the estimated value of the display market exceeding $5.2 billion by 2004, any firm that can get a foothold today will reward investors over the next decade.

While it is true that MED have yet to receive a penny in income, it is not just another dubious technology prospect. If it can secure the right management team, its future will be as bright as its revolutionary displays.

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