Microdisplays grow up -- and go for the gold.

• Author: PETERSON, ERIC

THREE COLORADO COMPANIES MAKE TINY, TINY DISPLAY SCREENS THAT SOON ARE GOING TO HAVE A HUGE, HUGE IMPACT

Brian Dierker's job isn't easy. An Arizona-based independent contractor for the U.S. Department of the Interior, Dierker pilots an inflatable catamaran packed to the gills with information technology. Steering through Colorado River whitewater on the Grand Canyon's floor, his task is to follow an imaginary transect line as instruments collect data on the environmental impact of a nearby dam. "My job is to be as close to that transect line as possible as I cross the river," Dierker said. "It's kind of tricky. You're looking back and forth between a computer screen and the shore."

As of Y2K, technology with Colorado roots has made Dierker's job a little less nerve-wracking. He now wears a Liteye-D, a headset made by Littleton-based Liteye MicroDisplay Systems LLC. The imaginary transect lines now are projected an inch from Dierker's eye on a microdisplay -- a tiny screen mounted on an integrated circuit. "It's really helpful because I don't have to look away from the shoreline," he said.

Beyond the Grand Canyon, Liteye's impressive client list includes the FBI, NASA and every branch of the armed forces. Pilots of everything from tractors to choppers use Liteye-Ds to multitask while keeping one eye on the road, feedlot or airspace. The microdisplay product does have its limits, however, due to its $2,995-and-up price tag. "It's not really a consumer product," said Ken Geyer, Liteye's executive vice president of development.

Industrial and military applications aside, scores of consumer-oriented microdisplay products will make their retail debut in 2000. This year, microdisplay suppliers are shifting "from prototype phase into production," said Chris Chinnock, publisher of the Norwalk, Conn.-based Microdisplay Report, a monthly trade magazine. Five or 10 years down the road, the microdisplay will supplant the cathode ray tube (CRT) as the dominant display technology, Chinnock predicted.

Worldwide, about 40 businesses are jockeying for position to supply this nascent market. Two Colorado-based companies -- Longmont's Displaytech Inc. and Boulder's Colorado MicroDisplay Inc -- are among those gearing up for mass production in 2000.

"It's a fairly crowded space," Chinnock said. Displaytech, with 114 employees, and Colorado MicroDisplay, with 40, "are small companies, clearly, and they're going to have to compete against some fairly big names."...