Watch out OLED manufacturers, the low power display market is about to have a new big-volume supplier.

Qualcomm, which is best known for its mobile phone chipsets and processors, is to build a $1bn displays production facility. The factory in Taiwan will produce small area, low-power displays for mobile phones and e-readers.

This is in a week when Samsung bought e-reader display start-up, Liquavista.

Qualcomm aims to compete with organic LED technology, currently seen as the best low-power display alternative for always-on handheld terminals such as e-readers.

The manufacturer developed a reflective MEMS-based display technology, called Mirasol, a number of years ago.

However, this investment is a significant move to use the technology for consumer priced displays.

So how is this technology different from OLED displays, and can it deliver the low power levels and lifetimes needed for e-readers?

The underlying technology is known as interferometric modulation and uses micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology. The displays work by reflecting light so that specific wavelengths interfere with each other to create colours.

Every pixel within the display is composed of MEMS elements, which physically manipulate light using sub-micron-sized mechanical elements.

The display is built on a glass substrate, and every MEMS element functions as a resonant optical cavity that strongly reflects a specific portion of the visible spectrum. The related visual colour that is created is directly proportional to the cavity’s depth.

Thin films deposited on the substrate comprise one wall of this cavity, and the other wall is a highly reflective flexible membrane. When electrostatic force is applied across the cavity, the membrane collapses against the substrate films, the cavity becomes very thin, and the resonant wavelength moves into the ultra¬violet spectrum.

Consequently, the viewer perceives a collapsed MEMS element as being black or ‘off’.

Colour displays are made by composing a single pixel from MEMS elements of different thicknesses. Varying the cavity depth results in variations of resonant wavelengths, which yield variations of colour.

Based on the phase difference, some wavelengths will constructively interfere, while others will destructively interfere.

As a result, the human eye will perceive different colours, as certain wavelengths will be amplified in respect to others.

The construction needs colour filters, polarisers, or organic compounds. Colour generation via interference is much more efficient in its use of light compared with traditional colour filters and polarisers, which work on the principle of absorption and waste much of the light entering the display.

Qualcomm believes that reflective rather than more traditional emissive displays are better suited to e-readers and mobile phones because they offer consistent contrast ratios and do not become washed out in diffuse sunlight.

“While emissive displays work well at low ambient light levels, when the ambient light exceeds the light levels being emitted from the display, the display’s contrast is
reduced,” says Qualcomm.

Another advantage is that reflective display technologies can remove the need for backlighting, further improving potential power efficiency.

The problem with new reflective display technologies such as Mirasol is that they are rarely produced at the commercial volumes of emissive TFT displays.

Qualcomm’s $1bn investment is intended to change that.

Qualcomm’s impressive Mirasol display technology has been doing the rounds for a while now. Unfortunately, not much has really changed since we last saw the tech in September – or even in February – but we did manage to learn a few more details.

For those who aren’t familiar with Mirasol, it’s a reflective display technology capable of playing back 30fps full-colour video with a miniscule power-draw. In fact, it requires no power to display a static image, much like typical e-ink displays, although the underlying tech is completely different.

Apparently, it works in a similar way to a butterfly’s wings. Microscopic mirrors sit a short distance beneath a piece of glass and can be turned off to show black or on to display a colour. The size of the air gap between the glass and the mirror determines the actual shade and mirrors positioned for red, blue and green are grouped together to form individual pixels.

The 5.7in screen on display was the same one that we’ve seen multiple times before, and sports a 1,024×768px resolution, giving it a pixel density of 223ppi. This is the size that the first generation of devices will be, although there is nothing stopping the technology scaling to larger screens in the future.

Obviously one of the problems with reflective displays is that colours aren’t very vibrant, but it’s not possible to combine the Mirasol display with a backlight. However, we were told that Qualcomm is working on a front-lighting technique that should work just as well.

The first batch of devices using this new tech will be ‘multi-function e-readers’ and should start to arrive in the first half of this year. Other sorts of devices – possibly using larger screens – should start to follow shortly afterwards.

In a rather quiet announcement at the Mobilize conference last week, Qualcomm revealed that its mirasol display technology will not be ready for release this year.

According to the information forwarded by Qualcomm to GigaOM, the company will not be able to stick to its originally-promised 2010 timeline for mirasol display technology, which will now be shipped early next year.

Qualcomm stopped short of divulging any reasons behind the delay of the release of the mirasol display format, which essentially working on the same principles as the color of a butterfly’s wings, uses interference with refracted light for generating certain colors while blocking others.

As such, the mirasol technique promises the extreme low power of an e-paper display; but with the expected color as well as notably faster update rates. It is being reported that screens that use mirasol will eventually be fast enough to display full-speed video; thereby meeting the requirements of carrying out usual computing tasks.

Once the mirasol display becomes a production reality, it will apparently usher in a revolution of sorts in the display technology arena, and will widely make its way on to the e-readers and tablet PCs. Quite similar to the brilliant Pixel Qi, mirasol will work just as splendidly out in the sun as it will indoors, drawing the minimum from the battery.

Qualcomm, the San Diego-based chip maker, is going to finally see its much-vaunted Mirasol color displays come to market in early 2011. The displays were supposed to launch in 2010.

The extremely low-energy and low-cost displays are going to be used in eReaders and in tablets. I got hold of a working prototype at our Mobilize 2010 conference and snapped a handful of pictures. The displays are pretty much as advertised: even in full sun, the images are crisp and clear and I had no problem reading.

Mirasol displays are part of Qualcomm’s efforts to diversify and get new revenue streams beyond CDMA chips, a virtual monopoly for the company.

LONDON, UK: Sources at Qualcomm say that the company is focusing on 5.7-inch diagonal and smaller applications for its Mirasol display right now. This is happening despite the fact that there is no technical reason for the technology not addressing larger applications.

The 9.7-inch size popularized by Apple with its iPad tablet computer has become a key stopping off point in display scaling said the sources. It has set a certain consumer expectation and comfort, which Qualcomm is definitely aware of.

The sources said that Qualcomm is constantly in touch with developments in the mobile device, in which Mirasol can offset the problem of power consumption. They revealed that a 5.7-inch e-reader (with a resolution of 1,024 x 768 pixels at 220 pixels per inch) will come out first, and that the company is working on adding smaller sizes that were tuned to the needs of the smartphone rather than scaling to a bigger sized display.

Qualcomm acquired the Mirasol technology in 2004, which has the ability to save power due to its non-volatile nature. It also does not require a backlight and is reflective, and uses ambient light. The drawback is that due to the same reason, the display could be seen as less intense and visually appealing than the usual saturated emissive OLED display.

There were no comments from the company regarding reports that Qualcomm is planning to spend about $2-billion to build a follow-on display fab.

Being a web journalist often means days on end without and professional reason to even leave the house. But over the last couple of weeks opposite has been very much the case for me, so I thought I’d share some of my findings from a frenzied fortnight of phone fun (sorry, don’t know where that spasm of alliteration came from).

Last week saw the arrival of the Qualcomm juggernaut at the Science Museum in London for its annual IQ tech-fest. Among the shiny things shown off on the day were a Snapdragon development platform, Qualcomm’s exciting colour display technology – Mirasol – and developments in Augmented Reality.

Being a premier supplier of mobile chips, Qualcomm saw the mobile Internet writing on the wall some time ago and has been positioning itself to offer not just chips, but other components and services too. Some, like Mirasol, seem to be taking off while others, like its Plaza mobile retail platform, seems to be on the back-burner for now. The video below feature Ben Timmons – a senior exec from Qualcomm’s European chip business, guiding us through some Qualcomm innovations.

The next day Google had an open-house, in which hacks are invited to Google Towers to hear about some new cleverness. This time it was the turn of mobile product director Hugo Barra, who was keen to show off some of Google’s own mobile innovations. In the Q&A conversation inevitably turned to Android and tablets and he found himself fielding questions not directly related to his presentation.

Barra’s admission that Android is not currently optimised for tablets caused a stir in the tech press, but as much as anything else it emphasised what demand there is for the equivalent of Windows for mobile devices.

The chances are Android is it; while iOS, BlackBerry OS, webOS, etc are designed to be used by only one OEM, Android is available to everyone. But Android is set to face the same criticisms as Windows on PCs, and for the same reason: jack of all trades, but master of none. I spoke to some prominent mobile games developers over the course of my travels this week and got the impression that Android is a lot more difficult to develop for than iOS.

Qualcomm has come to market with a display technology called Mirasol that it expects to power next-generation, color e-book readers. Mirasol relies on so-called Imod technology, which uses ambient light to generate images and colors.

Unless you’re Stephen Hawking, the scientific details will make your nose bleed. But Qualcomm says that e-readers with Mirasol displays will only need charging every two weeks or so, while providing crisp text and pictures even in direct sunlight.

Bad news, early adopters: You can’t buy a Mirasol e-reader yet. Qualcomm says to expect them to ship this year, with price, size and other details still TBD.

LONDON — Qualcomm Corp. has shown off a 5.3-inch full-color non-volatile MEMS-based display and claims a slightly larger version, with a 5.7-inch diagonal size, will be found in an e-reader product to deploy in fall 2010. The display features 1,024 by 768 pixel resolution and around 220 pixels per inch.
“We have a brand partner for the e-reader space to be announced in the first quarter of 2010,” said Cheryl Goodman, director of marketing for Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, speaking at Qualcomm press day held in London.

The Mirasol technology, which Qualcomm (San Diego, Calif.) acquired in 2004, does not require a back-light and is reflective, making use of ambient light.

The technology is based on a MEMS structure combined with thin film optics to create interferometric modulation. The color display is thin and bi-stable so that power is only consumed when changing the status of display. This is a boon for e-reader type products where it can achieve great power savings. The display technology is also capable of running video at 30-frame per second.

In the past Qualcomm has provided 3G wireless modems to Amazon for use in the Kindle wireless reading device. Qualcomm announced an agreement with LG Electronics Inc. to begin the development of Mirasol-enabled handsets, in February 2009.

The Mirasol technology is in use in some cell phone products but only as monochrome and small displays.

Qualcomm has a dedicated display fabrication plant in the Lungtan Science Park in Taoyuan, Taiwan, that us operated on behalf of Qualcomm by Taiwan’s Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co. Ltd.