Samsung Electronics is making a buy in the LCD sector.
It has splashed out on Liquavista, a company that may have come up with a new way to create LCD screens through a technique called "electrowetting". Besides sounding like a dubious Berlin nightclub, it also allows for bright, colourful and easy-to-read displays in any light environment while using minimal energy.
Liquavista, a spin-off from Phillips Research Labs, says that Electrowetting - which can be applied to e-readers, mobile phones, media players and other mobile devices - could eventually replace the traditional LCD screens.
Currently the most well known electrowetting technology company on the market today is E-Ink, whose displays are used in the Amazon Kindle. LG Display, which supplies panels for Sony's Sony Reader, is also in a partnership with the company.
However, the researchers have so far hit a brick wall when trying to apply electrowetting to colour screens.
Liquavista, a smaller company to E Ink, thinks it has cracked the colour crisis. It claims to have created a colour display that uses 10 percent of the power of current LCD panels while doubling the transmittance.
In a statement Samsung said: "With the acquisition of Liquavista, Samsung aims to strengthen its leadership in (the) next-generation display industry by pioneering the application of electrowetting in e-paper and transparent displays."
It would not disclose the amount paid.
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