Jepsen, formerly the head of Intel's display division and chief technology officer at One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), has focused on lowering the battery drain by LCD screens and making them useful as e-readers in addition to normal computer use.

The company's first screen, at 10.1-inches, is being displayed by several companies at CES, including in a multi-touch tablet PC from called the Smartpad.

Pixel Qi also hopes to make the screen, called 3qi, available to anyone with some engineering savvy who wants to use its DIY kit to switch out their own netbook screen or try to create their own computer.

"We just think it's important to give everyone an opportunity to innovate, especially [considering] our roots at One Laptop Per Child," Jepsen said in an interview at CES, "so we'll be announcing soon a way people can just buy the screens and mod their own notebooks or make their own systems."

Pixel Qi hopes to have DIY kits out by the end of the first quarter or early in the second quarter of this year, she said.