CDT, the company leading the worldwide development of Light Emitting Polymer (LEP) today announced the expansion of its licensing programme with a trade mission to Taiwan on 26 to 28 January, 2000.

CDT is broadening the scope of its low information content licensing programme and expects to recruit up to ten licenses over the next 18 months.

The term low information content display is used to describe any display with under 100,000 separately addressable pixels used in applications such as today's mobile telephones and consumer hi-fi displays. By comparison high information content displays are those with over 100,000 pixels used in applications such as personal digital assistants, computers, televisions and G3 phones.

CDT has spent the last 24 months developing expertise in the manufacture of low information content. The company is now looking to license its core LEP Intellectual Property and transfer technology know-how to other low-information content manufacturers. It will also support this activity with supply of LEP materials.

CDT's trade mission to Taiwan will see the company present to around 100 members of the Photonics Industry and Development Association , the country's leading trade industry organisation for display manufacturers. In addition to this, CDT will meet directly with several of Taiwan's leading manufacturers that are interested in exploiting CDT's technology.

According to the PIDA, Taiwan has a very strong history of display manufacture and currently owns more than 7 per cent of the global display market, valued at $6 billion.

'LEP technology is now ready for early markets and there is a developing infrastructure to support it. We want to encourage the technology development by bringing it to mass consumer markets quickly. This is the first initiative to spread the word in this way, but will be followed by others. We are very serious about driving our technology to market with our partners' said Mark Gostick, commercial director, CDT.

'Taiwan has a strong history for bringing early stage technology to market on a global basis. The country has taken a strong lead in the development and commercialisation of many electronics products including the disk drive, the PC, the scanner and recently the LCD. Through the PIDA we hope to attract significant interest in LEP and recruit new licensees to help drive the technology into new markets,' added Gostick.