“We know the Tectus people,” Chris Riegel, Stratacache founder and chief executive, told the Dayton Daily News.
Downtown Dayton-based digital signage company Stratacache brought a Eugene, Ore. computer chip factory back to life with explicit plans to build microLEDs — small, light-emitting diodes — that can be fitted to smaller consumer and cutting-edge products and even wearable devices.
“If you talk to someone in the Air Force, as an example, you don’t want the latest and greatest F-35 to have a visual display in it that says, ‘Made in China,‘” Riegel said at the time.
The new DOD announcement seems to confirm that.
But Riegel also said his company’s pursuits are more along the lines of big commercial projects in the realms of “chip-to-chip” and “chip-to-memory-interconnect” — new ways to manage data, commands and communication.
“There’s $600 billion being spent on AI infrastructure in the U.S. this year,” he said. “There will probably be $700 (billion) next year.”
He added: “That’s more than 300 (pilot’s) helmets in F-35s.”
The DOD investment does validate the usefulness and necessity of the technology, he said.
“Microdisplays are crucial components in delivering information to the joint warfighter and are integrated into solutions across all domains including heads-up-displays for pilots, advanced night vision goggles, weapon optics, and unmanned systems,” Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy Michael Cadenazzi said in a statement. “Securing a domestic supply of advanced MicroLED displays is vital for the department’s next-generation defense applications, ensuring both performance and security.”
“Highly relevant,” was how Riegel put it when he was asked for a reaction to the DOD’s plans.
“Stratacache’s 1.2 million-square-foot facility in Eugene, Ore. is more than a reclaimed industrial building — it’s a deliberate bet on bringing advanced display manufacturing back to the United States," the company said in a look at the factory last October.
Stratacache noted that micro-LED technology relies on microscopic, self-emitting pixels that deliver “dramatically higher brightness, superior energy efficiency, and new possibilities” for displays.
Those are the kinds of displays the military wants.
The U.S.-funded projects will establish an “onshore, multi-vendor supply chain of state-of-the-art MicroLED displays,” the DOD said.
The military’s goal: microLED technology that can be discerned in direct sunlight, while supporting image quality at low brightness for night operations.
Riegel said Stratacache has invested a substantial amount into the Eugene plant, but he declined to say exactly how much. He has roughly 40 employees there.
There are American research sites devoted to microLEDs. But the Eugene factory is the principal American site devoted to production of this technology, Riegel said.
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