Laserati

Arasor acquired US-based Novalux through US$7 million as part of a joint venture with ZTE Corporation, China's largest telecommunications and networking provider, to commercialise laser chip technology for use in TVs, projectors, and smaller screens such as laptop, PDA and mobile phone. via: SmartHouse

High-Power Red Laser Output is Milestone toward High-Def Laser TVs with “Necsel” Color

SUNNYVALE, Calif., November 29, 2006 – Novalux, Inc., developer of Necsel™ laser technology, announced today that it has delivered red 1.5-watt Necsel laser prototypes to key consumer electronics partners. 1.5-watt output is twice the power of previous red Necsel devices and puts Novalux on track to produce RGB (red, green, blue) Necsel lasers for integration into high-definition (HD) projection TVs.

“Reaching 1.5 watts with our red Necsel arrays is a significant step toward our goal of shipping RGB lasers that produce three watts per color for our initial product,” said Greg Niven, Novalux vice president of marketing. “We reached three-watt power output with green and blue some time ago and we’ve been able to apply what we learned with that product development to our red technology. We are on track to deliver all-Necsel RGB sources to our consumer electronics partners for integration into HD laser TVs for Christmas 2007.”

Necsel-based laser TV offers consumers many advantages over competing display technologies, such as plasma and UHP lamp-based projection TV. Said Niven, “Right now plasma especially has momentum in the over-50-inch big-screen marketplace, but Necsel laser TVs offer twice the color gamut with one quarter the power consumption. Plasma TVs consume about a kilowatt of power, so a U.S. consumer could save around $300 per year in electricity cost alone by buying a laser TV.”

Prototype laser RPTVs show a dramatically expanded color gamut, higher brightness and striking image contrast over competing display technologies. Ultimately, Necsel technology could enable home theater systems that marry over 200% of NTSC color coverage, high-brightness, high-resolution images, a thin, wide viewing angle architecture, and unsurpassed light source lifetime—all at an affordable cost.

All-Necsel RGB sources benefit TV manufacturers over other types of lasers because they provide desirable output wavelengths, increase display performance, and allow lower overall system cost. Specifically, red Necsel arrays can produce light in the 615- to 625-nm range—a wavelength that matches existing TV-screen phosphors. Competing red edge-emitter laser technology can only go as low as 635 nm and has poor lifetime. And since in a Necsel system the same type of laser emits each of the three colors, they share the same device parameters. This uniformity results in simpler, cost-efficient laser integration from drive electronics to imaging optics.

Novalux will demonstrate its Necsel technology in public and private demos during the Consumer Electronics Show 2007 (CES) January 8-11 in Las Vegas, Nevada. According to Niven, “We’ll be showing completely new laser product usages, including prototype laser TVs, a laser cinema projector, and portable laser projectors. The demo is an excellent opportunity to see the enabling performance laser technology brings to these applications.”

Other opportunities to learn more about Novalux and Necsel technology include the International Display Workshop 2006 in Otsu, Japan, where Niven will present “Trends in Laser Light Sources for Projection Display” on December 8; and Photonics West 2007 in San Jose, CA, where Chief Operating Officer Mitch Jansen will present “Visible Laser Sources for Projection Displays” on January 22.

About Novalux:
Founded in 1998, Novalux has developed proprietary Necsel™ laser technology. Necsel technology combines mass volume manufacturability with excellent optical performance. Necsel device attributes include bright, reliable, consistent, speckle-free light output from a compact, low-cost package, making them ideal for current- and next-generation display applications.

For more information about Novalux, please contact Vice President of Marketing Greg Niven at (408) 773-3433, or visit www.novalux.com.

Arasor and Novalux unveiled a laser TV prototype in Australia recently. See media coverages 1, 2. The following comments on the advantages of Laser TV are quite precise and understandable for public (from news.com.au).

According to Arasor, Laser TV has a number of advantages over plasma which includes being a third lighter and using 25 per cent less power.

Plasmas, which are filled with phosphorous gases, on some occasions have been known to suffer 'burn in' when displaying static images for extended periods - a problem Laser TV owners will not have to worry about.

Laser TV can also display fast moving images without ghosting or image smearing, a drawback for some LCD screens with slow response times.

LCD and plasmas can produce about half the colour gamut, which is the amount of colour which can be viewed by the human eye, whereas Laser TV can produce up to 90 per cent.

Jean-Michel Pelaprat, CEO of Novalux, the company who has co-designed the laser components of the TV says the technology could also find its way to mobile phones and laptops as a way to project an image on a wall.

As I understand, in their partnership Novalux makes near infrared semiconductor lasers; and Arasor converts these lasers to visible. Neither of them make TVs. They will just supply the laser and projection chips. "You should think of us like Intel or AMD making the heart of your Laptop, but it’s Dell that is the laptop maker." Larry Marshall, the co-chairman of Arasor, said.

Mitsubishi is another big player in laser TV. Both of them said that they will release laser TV in 2007.