The maker of a new low-cost rear projection imager from Sysview Technology hopes that its new design will reinvigorate the rear-projection HDTV set maker and give companies that have been locked out of the HDTV set market a chance to enter in a cost-effective manner.
The 1080p Nano-LCOS microdisplay imager from Sysview Technology uses proprietary technology to deliver a true 1080p display with 2 million pixels on an imager measuring only 0.7 inches. George Mihalakis, Sysview Technology CTO, says the introduction of the Nano-LCOS imager is important because 1080p is the HD format that both the computer and TV manufacturing industries agree about.
It also will help LCOS-based HDTV sets become more affordable and popular, an important step given the incredible momentum of the flat-panel industry. Industry forecasts, according to Mihalakis, say that about 7 million rear-projection HD sets will be sold in 2007.
“The potential is there for this technology to be low cost and high resolution,” says Mihalakis. “This can enable a supply chain and value chain that can help companies in the computer market, for example, to put their brands into an HD set market that currently is dominated by Japanese manufacturers.”
The imager delivers 2 million pixels on an imager that measures less than .7 inches, a feature that Mihalakis says impacts cost profoundly because the smaller imager means big cost savings. “The cost of making the silicon is extremely sensitive to the size,” he says. “For example, when you double the size of an imager from half an inch to an inch it doesn’t simply double the cost: it increases it by a power of four which is 16 times the original cost.”
Mihalakis says he believes the imager will be shipping to its end customer, the HD system developers, by the end of the year.
“What this basically means is more pixels at a lower cost for the end consumer and more diversity and competition in the product space,” he says.
