Experts meet on flat panel display applications

ANN ARBOR—National and international flat panel display experts are meeting in Ypsilanti, Mich., today and tomorrow (Sept. 22-23) for a symposium on the technology and its future applications.

The forum at the Ypsilanti Marriott, hosted by the University of Michigan’s Center for Display Technology and Manufacturing, U-M’s College of Engineering and the Society for Information Display’s Metropolitan Detroit Chapter, will cover topics ranging from reflective Liquid Crystal Displays to the use of flat panels in commercial automobiles.

“I am glad the flat panel display industry is meeting in Michigan,” said Doug Rothwell, chief executive officer and director of the Michigan Jobs Commission. “I believe Michigan has a lot to offer the industry as a location for manufacturing facilities and I look forward to working with many of these people in the future.”

David Cole, director of the Office for the Study of Automotive Transportation at the U-M’s Transportation Research Institute, said that as FPD technology advances and becomes more practical, it will change the design of car interiors. However, FPDs are currently too expensive to build in quantities sufficient to supply the automotive industry, Cole said. “One of the reasons for this meeting is to begin to look at some of the things that might be impediments to relatively low cost applications.”

The U-M has been a leader in flat panel display research since establishing the CDTM in 1993. The Center, located on U-M’s North Campus, has received financial support from the state of Michigan, and major intellectual property from Lucent Technologies.

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Center for Display Technology and Manufacturing,Michigan Jobs CommissionOffice for the Study of Automotive TransportationU-M News and Information ServicesUniversity of Michigan