Trident Microsystems Announces Plans to License Foundational MEMC Patents

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
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MEMC Patents Crucial for High Picture Quality in Consumer Electronics

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Trident Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq:TRID) today announced plans to pursue license agreements with TV OEMs and consumer electronics semiconductor providers for several of its Motion Estimation/Motion Compensation (MEMC) patents, which are essential to enhancing picture quality of LCD displays in televisions, computer monitors, tablet computers, mobile phones and other consumer electronics devices.

As a result of Trident’s recent acquisitions, including TV and audio product lines from Micronas, and the set-top box and TV product lines from NXP B.V., Trident now has a comprehensive portfolio of patents that are foundational to the consumer electronics industry’s ability to deliver high-quality video images. Trident plans to make a limited number of licenses available to customers and competitors to enable them to incorporate the MEMC technology originally pioneered and patented by Philips for use in their consumer video devices. This patented MEMC technology enables the judder-free and blur-free display of high definition and 3D images for high-quality televisions and other video enabled LCD display devices, and has become a de facto standard approach to picture quality.

“Trident is a technology leader in the TV and set-top box markets,” said Duane Northcutt, Trident’s chief technology officer. “Our patent portfolio includes MEMC technology originally developed by Philips that covers a method for enhancing picture quality used widely across much of the consumer electronics market today. Our goal is to establish license agreements with major players in the industry and enable those companies to incorporate these MEMC capabilities into their products in the future.”

The company has not disclosed financial details of its licensing program. For additional information or to request a license, interested companies can contact Trident at: IP_Legal@tridentmicro.com.