Brightening up laptop displays

Designers building laptop and desktop monitors that use cold-cathode fluorescent lamps to backlight LCDs can create brighter images and text by using MicroLens technology from Global Lighting Technologies Inc., Brecksville, Ohio. The technology puts up to 30,000 efficiency-boosting lenses per square inch in a molded backlight assembly. It lets monitors generate more brightness and use less power. It also reduces the need for expensive diffusing and brightness enhancing films. The assemblies ranging in price from $18 to $28 in production-sized lots, and can fit 12.1 to 15-in. diagonal-sized displays used in laptop monitors.