Babcock Display, Samsung to Develop Plasma Screens

A small Orange County company announced Wednesday that it has joined forces with the giant Samsung conglomerate of Korea to develop computer screens and related products using plasma display technology.

Babcock Display Products Inc., a unit of the Orange-based defense and electronics firm Babcock Inc., would not say how much money is being invested in the new venture. Several Samsung engineers are already at work in Babcock Display’s laboratories here, where the joint development effort will be based.

Plasma screens are flat panels filled with a neon gas, which glows orange when an electric current is applied. An image is created by applying the current selectively to individual points on the screen.

Babcock currently builds small plasma screens which are widely used on gasoline pumps, according to sales chief Brian Lundstram. The agreement with Samsung is aimed at developing larger screens, primarily for use as portable computer monitors.

Display technology is one of the most hotly contested areas of the electronics business. Many eagerly awaited products, such as high-definition television sets, are dependent on the development of screens which are lightweight and can provide very high resolution while keeping power consumption down.

Nearly all the leading electronics companies in Japan and the United States are spending large sums on display technology, with much of the research going into liquid crystal rather than plasma screens.

Samsung, one of Korea’s largest companies with sales of about $25 billion, is a leading consumer electronics producer and computer chip manufacturer. Babcock Inc., by contrast, is a privately held firm with revenues in the $25 million-to-$30-million range, according to Lundstram. Babcock Display is one of four units of the company. The other three build relays, power supplies, and magnetic products for the military.