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Meet John Batey
President of Qualcomm MEMS Technology (QMT)
If you were looking to commercialize a breakthrough display technology, particularly one using offshore manufacturing resources, you’d be hard pressed to find a more qualified individual to lead the effort than John Batey. As president of QMT, John is a disciplined scientist turned pragmatic businessman with a background that makes him a perfect fit for the job.
The Experience to Lead
A man of many talents, John is an award-winning patent holder, a contributor to the scientific literature in physics and one of the first employees of Iridigm Corporation, the company that innovated the mirasol™ display technology that combines thin film optics with MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems). The result is an Always-On™ display that is viewable everywhere – from inside a dim office to outside in bright sunlight. John was COO and acting CEO of Iridigm when it was acquired by Qualcomm in 2004. As part of the integration process, he served as assistant GM for the new QMT group until being promoted to president in late 2006.
Before coming to Qualcomm, John worked at IBM, Kodak and dpiX . He knows the formula well. Innovate a new technology. Create a new company. Build a fab and transfer the technology into it. That is the challenge facing QMT today as the company works to build an infrastructure that will get the line running and then ramp up the capacity required for commercial viability. As John explains, "When you are creating something so new, there are no direct competitors to benchmark against and the task of setting the specifications can be daunting."
The QMT Challenge
The mission at QMT is to displace the traditional "emissive" or "backlit" technology model with the newer, more efficient reflective technology referred to as mirasol ™. The competitive advantages are dramatic. mirasol displays enable the creation of wireless devices that consume significantly less power while having high image quality with video capability. Another key differentiator is that they ultimately will cost less to manufacture. And one only has to take a look at the screen to realize there’s something wonderful about a display that can be seen in almost any environment. The challenge, according to John, is, "How do we get into the slot that the entrenched technology has? How do we disrupt it?"
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Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, Inc. (QMT) has developed the industry's first MEMS display for mobile devices - a true technological innovation that offers low power consumption and superb viewing quality in a wide range of environmental conditions, including bright sunlight. The display works by reflecting light so that specific wavelengths interfere with each other to create color. The phenomenon that makes a butterfly's wings shimmer is the same process used in Qualcomm's mirasol™ displays. Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, Inc support Qualcomm's overall strategy of increasing the capabilities of mobile devices while minimizing power consumption. The largest drain on the mobile phone’s battery life is the screen. Standby time for the average device represents about 49% of usage today. Qualcomm’s response to this industry challenge is mirasol. With no backlight, mirasol displays have energy savings of four- to six-times over conventional technology today.
