SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A. - iFire Technology Inc. today demonstrated an 8.5-inch flat panel video display with TV-quality color on its proprietary inorganic electroluminescent (EL) technology to an audience of flat panel scientists and industry peers at the Society for Information Display Conference. A subsidiary of The Westaim Corporation (Nasdaq: WEDX, TSE: WED), iFire Technology demonstrated its color breakthrough on a similar prototype display in Japan in May after proving its new materials processes on smaller displays earlier this year.

“This is the first time that inorganic EL technology has delivered color quality typical of today’s CRT-based television sets,” said Michael Goldstein, President of iFire Technology. “This achievement opens the door for more demanding video applications, such as consumer TV. We continue to advance the benchmarks for EL technology and are well on our way to achieving large size video displays with superior color, brightness and performance.”

iFire Technology’s latest advancement uses a color patterning process with separate red, green and blue phosphors in combination with a analog grayscale column driver ICs to deliver 16.7 million clear, crisp saturated colors – something never before demonstrated by an inorganic EL technology. The company’s blue phosphor color now rivals high-end CRT TVs. The company’s next step on its path to achieving viability for consumer TV applications will be to apply these color advancements to a 17-inch video display by the end of 2001.

“The iFire display’s unique structure and materials system differentiates it from other EL displays,” said Dr. Xingwei Wu, iFire’s Vice President of Science and Technology. “The color accomplishments demonstrated today, combined with our patented thick dielectric structure should allow us to achieve something that no other EL technology is capable of: consumer priced, TV-size flat panel video displays with CRT color.”

iFire Technology’s proprietary thick dielectric structure allows for the display to be passively driven, so it does not require the expensive active matrix thin-film transistor array (TFT) that some other technologies, including organic EL and active matrix liquid crystal display (AMLCD), need in order to achieve high brightness in video applications. Displays using TFT experience difficulty scaling to larger sizes, because production yields drop as the display area size increases. iFire^TM displays can be produced using well-known, higher yield printed circuit board or capacitor manufacturing processes, rather than complex semi-conductor type processes.

About iFire^TM flat panel displays
iFire Technology is the largest inorganic EL research and development facility in the world. iFire^TM flat panel display technology has been advanced faster than any other display technology in history, moving from 2-inch screens to 17-inch screens within a 24-month period. Compared with most other flat panel technologies, an iFire^TM flat panel display is a very simple device. It does not involve vacuum, gases or liquids, making it more robust than other flat panel technologies with reduced susceptibility to shock, vibration and breakage. iFire^TM displays emit light from the front portion of the display, resulting in a wide viewing angle and crisp, clear, full-color images. iFire^TM flat panel displays boast one of the widest operating temperature ranges of any electronic display technology, meeting the demanding requirements of transportation displays and other high-reliability applications.

iFire Technology is commercializing small graphic iFire^TM displays through a licensing agreement it signed with TDK Corporation of Japan in February 2000. iFire plans to become a leading supplier of branded flat panel display modules for the large screen TV market by building a partnership with a consumer electronic company.

The Westaim Corporation is a technology accelerator that launches exceptional technologies into the marketplace. In addition to iFire Technology Inc., its technology investments include Westaim Biomedical Corp., which has developed an infection control technology for use in the treatment of wounds, and Savvion, a leader in e-business management software. Westaim's common shares are listed on Nasdaq under the symbol WEDX and on The Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol WED.

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Contact:
Tony Johnston, Senior Vice President
The Westaim Corporation
(403) 234-3103
info@westaim.com
www.westaim.com
www.ifire.com

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