Apr 8 2010
Kopin® Corporation (NASDAQ: KOPN), the largest U.S. manufacturer of display systems for mobile consumer and military applications, today announced it has received a $27M follow-on production order of eyepieces for the U.S. Army’s Thermal Weapon Sight Bridge (TWS-IIB) program.
This order, to be fulfilled over a two-year period, supports continued production of a high-performance eyepiece that has been fully qualified recently in the TWS-IIB program after thorough testing in harsh battlefield environments. The same eyepiece is being demonstrated at the International Defense, Security, and Sensing Symposium in Orlando, Florida this week.
Kopin's standard eyepiece product was designed for and qualified on the Light, Medium and Heavy Thermal Weapons Sights (LTWS, MTWS, HTWS) in the U.S. Army's TWS-IIB program.
“This follow-on order from one of our customers is a testament to the quality of our display system products,” said President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. John C. C. Fan. “The combination of our advanced display technology with our proprietary electro-optical system design and manufacturing processes, which include minimizing the generation of and screening for foreign particles and extensive testing for shock, vibration and environmental stress, results in the industry’s most robust thermal weapon sight eyepiece.”
Kopin’s TWS-IIB eyepiece is based on the Company’s patented low-power CyberDisplay® 640M LVR display. This industry-leading low-power display is specifically designed to operate at temperatures as low as -40°C with nearly ‘Instant-On’ capability, an unprecedented achievement for liquid crystal displays, and yet enables the complete eyepiece system to dissipate less than 155 mW during normal video operation. Imaging system performance is consistent over the entire military temperature range, eliminating complex compensation algorithms required by other types of displays. The unit has been qualified on the entire family of Light, Medium, and Heavy Thermal Weapon Sights (LTWS, MTWS, HTWS) for an array of weapons including the M14, M4, M2, M24, M249, and M240.
“This follow-on order calls for the delivery of eyepieces beginning early this quarter,” stated Michael Presz, the Company’s Vice President of Government Programs. “We believe this is the first of many orders that leverage our extensive investment in class-10 cleanroom high level assembly facilities with extensive environmental testing capability and our low-power ‘Instant-On’ displays.”