Exactly how to make a business out of a technological advance wasn't immediately clear to the Ntera founders. Seeing themselves as researchers more than businessmen, the team initially envisioned Ntera as a holding pen for intellectual property, licensing their breakthroughs to others who would turn them into products.

But after a few years the executives realized that they would have to make products themselves, at least initially—hence the fabrication line in Taiwan. After the technology catches on, Ntera plans to get out of the manufacturing business. What it wants to do is control production of the inklike slurries of nanoparticles and electrochromic molecule formulas, which it will sell to licensees, much in the way Coca-Cola sells its secret syrup to bottlers. The company also expects to collect royalties from products made with its inventions.

Meanwhile, Ntera plans to continue developing and extending its basic technology, in hopes of moving beyond the low-information display market into sexier stuff. Ntera envisions three such product extensions already—full-color, active-matrix displays, like those ubiquitous in laptop computers; flexible plastic displays for use in clothing and packaging; and transparent displays, for which a first application might be an electronic iris for cellphone cameras.

Right now, NCD displays are monochromatic, though they can come in different colors, depending on the specific oxide used. But Ntera executives see no reason why they can't get a piece of the market for full-color active-matrix displays in mobile devices like phones and PDAs. So far, they've identified electrochromic molecules that reflect blue and green—two of the three primary colors needed to make all of the colors visible to the human eye. The third color, red, has been more elusive, but, says CTO Corr, a solution for red appears to be close.

Nor has Ntera entirely given up on the still-nascent—but potentially huge—market for roll-up newspapers and other flexible displays.

"One of the big advantages of our technology is that it can be migrated onto plastic," Corr says. Plastic can replace the glass plates of an NCD because the technology does not require a precise and stable distance between the two plates, as is the case with an LCD. Warping or bending the display may push the electrolyte around a little but has little or no effect on the color-changing molecules that create the image. Yet another possibility is transparent displays, which Ntera has already begun experimenting with. Making an NCD transparent simply means leaving out one of the layers of titanium dioxide particles.

In any of its markets, the NCD will face off against a variety of contenders. LCDs, of course, have the benefit of industry inertia. In addition, several companies have their own electrochromic displays in the works. Siemens AG, in Munich, Germany, recently demonstrated a small printable display, which it hopes to have on the market in 2007. Printable, flexible electrochromic displays are also under development at Acreo AB, in Kista, Sweden, and Aveso Inc., in Fridley, Minn. Given the number of options available, "any display technology is in for quite a challenging time," says Adrian Geisow, manager of displays research at HP Labs Bristol, in England.

But Ntera seems to stack up well against many of its apparent opponents developing new flat-panel technologies. Organic electroluminescent display (OELD) technology, which, like NCD, is potentially flexible, requires a large capital investment—tens of millions of dollars at least—and costs, Nick How estimates, about $3 per square inch to make. A product of equivalent size containing Ntera's technology would cost a fraction of this—as little as one-tenth, by some estimates.

"Perhaps somebody we don't know about has a cracking good idea that is so good and easy to make that in two years they'll have a jump on us," Corr says. "But I sure don't see anybody like that out there."

Meanwhile, as this article was going to press, the first commercial NCD products were rolling off the assembly line. You'll see them soon on store shelves. And Corr and Fitzmaurice will be proud papas. "To this day, eight years after we made the first one, I do believe it really is a thing of beauty," Corr said. "And it is just cool to say that this is something I helped bring to life."

With additional reporting by Steven Cherry.

NanoChromics Display

GOAL: Create an electronic display for the consumer market as easy to read as paper.

WHY IT'S A WINNER: It looks like ink on paper, and it has a high contrast ratio and a wide viewing angle. It's visible everywhere, even in bright sunlight. It consumes little power and is cheap to manufacture.

ORGANIZATION: Ntera Ltd.

CENTER OF ACTIVITY: Dublin, Ireland.

NUMBER OF PEOPLE ON THE PROJECT: 35 and growing.

BUDGET: Approximately US $35 million to date.