OLED-Info Q&A with Ian Underwood, Strategic Marketing Officer, MED

Ron Mertens from OLED-Info.com recently had the opportunity to interview Ian Underwood, Strategic Marketing Officer and Co-Founder of MicroEmissive Display (MED). Ian is also the co-inventor of its PLED (also called P-OLED) microdisplay technology. Prior to 1999 he was at The University of Edinburgh where he carried out pioneering research and development in the field of liquid crystal microdisplays between 1983 and 1999. Ian has recently co-authored a book about microdisplays.

MicroEmissive Displays (MED) was founded in 1999 with the aim of developing and commercialising a new microdisplay technology using PLED materials. MED is a public company listed on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange. In september 2006 MED has announced that it has raised over $9 million, and has revealed its plans for a volume manufacturing facility for its polymer light emitting diode (PLED) microdisplay products.

Q: First of all, thank you for accepting to do this interview session with us... Let's begin. Can you give a short description of MED? What it is that you do?

MED develops, manufactures ands sells microdisplays based upon the hybrid technology of PLED/CMOS (read as P-OLED over CMOS). A microdisplay is a very-small active-matrix electronic display that is capable of showing TV-quality pictures. Microdisplays are optically magnified in order to produce a viewable image. Microdisplay-based systems have the unique advantage of being able to produce a viewable image that is much larger than the physical size of the unit that produces the image. An additional advantage (particularly for portable and personal electronics) is that microdisplays tend to operate at lower power than the equivalent direct-view display thus prolonging battery life.