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On May 22, Fujitsu Microelectronics, Inc. (FMI) announced the latest addition to its line of Plasma Display Panels, a 32"-diagonal unit less than three inches thick and weighing less than thirty pounds. The new PDP will make its official debut at the Society for Information Display (SID) Conference to be held June 3–8 in San Jose, CA.

Built by Fujitsu Hitachi Plasma Display, Ltd., a joint venture between Fujitsu and Hitachi, the new display features an aspect ratio of 16:9 and is said to be capable of reproducing television images with a vertical resolution of 1024 lines. Fujitsu has developed a new drive technology known as Alternate Lighting of Surfaces (ALIS), which reportedly doubles the resolution from a fixed number of electrodes by "significantly expanding the electrode discharge level." The new ALIS PDP is said to have better contrast and brightness as a result.

Fujitsu has had a 42" HD PDP on the market since 1998. A 37" XGA PDP was introduced in 2000; the company states that a 37" HD PDP is tentatively planned for introduction in late 2001. All three sizes of ALIS displays will be capable of HDTV at 1024 vertical lines of resolution, according to Fumio Baba, vice president of FMI's system devices group. Baba predicts an expanding market for HD PDPs, driven largely by the popularity of DVD as a video source.

"As high-definition digital television emerges, so will consumer and business demand for these light, thin, high-resolution displays, which are ideal for both moving and still images," Baba said. "Worldwide, we foresee demand in the range of two million units by fiscal 2003, which ends in March 2004, with more than one million deployed in HDTV applications." FMI sold 180,000 plasma displays in fiscal 2000, according to the announcement. Fujitsu Hitachi Plasma Display, Ltd. expects to be capable of producing 70,000 PDP units per month by 2002.