Founded in 1985 in Boulder, Colorado, Displaytech began carrying out research to commercialize ferroelectric liquid crystal technologies. Ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLC) are much faster than similar liquid crystal technologies, switching up to 100 times faster. An important milestone was reached with the development of the first FLC materials that operated reliably within a broad temperature range. The company supported itself during the initial decade with government-funded research and by manufacturing FLC electro-optic devices for sale to university and industrial research laboratories. During this period the company developed and demonstrated the first liquid crystal on silicon device using foundry silicon. The company also developed a pilot manufacturing line to create the finished display product.
In 1999, based on its success in producing FLC materials that operated over a full commercial temperature range, Displaytech launched a line of microdisplays for use as electronic viewfinders in digital cameras and camcorders. That year Displaytech also selected Citizen Miyota as a manufacturing partner and transferred process know-how to them, enabling them to successfully build FLCOS devices in high volume. Since then Displaytech has shipped over 21 million FLCOS microdisplays for use in digital still cameras, camcorders and other consumer electronics devices.
In August 2006 Displaytech licensed its electronic viewfinder product line to Citizen Miyota. The agreement allowed Displaytech to focus on a range of new products, including small projectors, mobile communications devices, data storage, head-mounted displays and more.
In May of 2009, Displaytech agreed to be acquired by Micron Technology, believing that combining their best-in-class display technology with the semiconductor innovator’s decades of experience and worldwide sales channel could provide mass-market possibilities that were previously unattainable.
CITIZEN FINEDEVICE CO., LTD. (CFD), a subsidiary of CITIZEN WATCH CO., LTD. in Japan, acquired Micron’s display business unit in August 2012, and established Miyota Development Center of America (MDCA.)
MDCA’s core expertise is in Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal (FLC) R&D and manufacturing, and custom Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) single-chip display designs. CFD's FLCOS products, made with backplanes designed by MDCA and FLCs manufactured by MDCA, have been used for many years in various consumer products such as Electronic Viewfinders for DSC, Scope, and HMD. The accumulated number of these products in the market is well over 25 million units.
Today, MDCA and CFD are continuously leveraging their extensive experience and knowledge to provide customers with a variety of related applications, including custom FLC products, LCOS design support, and LCOS foundry services.