Laser-Based Projectors Seen Soon Replacing Lamps as Light Source

Many hurdles remain, including cost, lifetime and the ability to reduce speckle -- grainy patterns seen when a laser is reflected diffusely at a display screen and inherent to the technology, industry officials said. But lasers could find a home in replacing lamps for 3D cinema as their lifetimes improve to 20,000 hours, said Greg Niven, vice president sales and marketing at Necsel, which was bought by Xenon lamp supplier Ushio last year. The projectors used in cinemas will likely feature more than 5,000 lumens, and sales are expected to increase to 270,615 by 2013 from 147,038 this year, said Matthew Brennesholtz, senior analyst at Insight Media.

The lasers for movie theaters will likely be powerful -- 3 watts in the case of a red, green, blue version from Necsel. And they need to be more than 15,000 lumens, industry officials said. Laser Light Engines is developing diode pumped solid-state lasers that are housed in a separate box that delivers light for the projector via optical fiber cable at distances up to 50 feet, said Bill Beck, executive vice president of business development. Laser Light’s prototype lasers deliver 10,000 lumens with a goal of increasing to 30,000 lumens by commercial production in second half 2011, Beck said. The Laser Light device also has a 0.4mm beam diameter and .003mm etendue, which characterizes how spread out the light is in an area and angle. Laser Light has achieved a speckle contrast ratio of 0.3-0.6 percent by broadening the spectral bandwidth of the 523-nanometer green laser and increasing angular divergence, said Beck, who declined to release specs. Green is the key to solving the speckle issue since it’s delivered in a narrow bandwidth and the human visual system is more sensitive to green than other colors, Beck said. The key for making laser-based projectors competitive with lamps in large venues also will be to get the cost to about $50 per lumen, Niven said. “Right now it’s a wide open field with a big amount of IP,” said Niven, who previous worked for Novalux, which developed lasers for rear projection TVs.

In addition to 3D, lasers are finding a home in pico-projectors, with smartphones emerging in the coming years as a target for the technology, industry officials said. To enter that market the size of laser modules will have to shrink as power consumption is reduced, said Alexander John, manager of specialty solid state lighting at Osram Semiconductor. Osram also is aiming to cut the module size to 1.2cc from 8.5cc, he said. Osram is supplying green laser diodes for Microvision’s ShowWX pico-projector, but also has shifted some R&D to modules, he said. The smaller module will bring lasers into videogames consoles, netbook and notebook PCs and digital still cameras as brightness doubles to 50 lumens by 2012, he said.

The lasers for smartphones and other devices will likely be about 60 milliwatts, industry officials said. Laser Light’s engine features a 50-milliwatt laser consisting of 615 nanometer red, 546 nanometer green and 455 nanometer blue, Beck said. To fund expansion, Laser Light expects to close on a $14 million to $15 million series B funding round in the next month consisting of current and institutional investors as well as strategic partners, Beck said. Among the partners is Germany-based laser manufacturer Jenoptic, he said. Laser Light has been working the Jenoptic for two years, he said. Also planning to increase production is Kaai, which will open a fabrication facility this year near San Francisco, said Paul Rudy, vice president of marketing and sales. It is making blue laser diodes and plans to have a 522-nanometer, 30-milliwatt green prototype in the third quarter, Rudy said. The green laser’s lifetime will be 500-1,000 hours to start, but will gradually increase to 10,000 hours amid improvements in materials, he said.