|
While enthusiasm for the technology has diminished somewhat,
panel developers have been plugging along. Hitachi for example,
is ready to ship a new 0.7-inch panel with 1920 x 1080 pixels
as well as a new 0.5-inch panel with 1366 x 768 pixels. Both feature
industry-leading 8.1-micron pixel pitches making them the highest
density LCOS panels to date - and a key reason why many think
LCOS will hold an advantage in the long term.
In addition, Three-Five Systems has release a 0.7-inch 1280 x
768 resolution LCOS panel, while eLCOS is readying a 0.9-inch
1400 x 1050 and a 0.7-inch 1280 x 720 resolution panels. And,
from Epson comes two new high-temperature polysilicon microdisplay
panels: a 0.7-inch 858 x 484 pixel model and a 0.9-inch 1284 x
724 resolution panel.
Clearly, many of these are targeted at wide-aspect rear-projection
TV applications. But guess what - many of product managers and
product developers in the traditional rear-projection TV supply
chain don't even know what a microdisplay is. Microdisplay-based
sets are now poised to finally revolutionize the TV industry.
The Yankee Group notes that HDTV penetration could reach 24 million
homes by 2006. Will big and bulky CRT-based rear-projection sets
be dominant at that time?
We don't think so. The business projection divisions in many
of the big consumer electronics companies get it, but not the
TV guys. They could be in for a rude awakening (and a key reason
why they should attend the Projection Industry Summit Conference
on June 10-11).
Components to support business and TV projection product manufacture
saw progress last month too. In this issue we report on a new
low-cost compact LCOS engine that has been developed by Wavien
and designed for use with 0.5-inch class panels. Perking Elmer
is the latest entrant into the UHP lamp manufacturing field too
as it is sampling two new devices (120W and 200W). And Corning
Precision Lens, which is heavily invested in supplying to the
CRT-based RPTV industry, is moving rapidly to establish a supply
base in microdisplay-based engine technology, both DLP and LCOS
based.
Meanwhile, the much beleaguered near-to-eye microdisplay segment
is starting to emerge from a rough 2001 too. EMagin has some new
money and is shipping OLED microdisplays into the Land Warrior
program. Displaytech has a new CEO and is dropping projection
product development to focus on viewfinder displays. And Kopin
has garnered new viewfinder wins with Panasonic and Hitachi that
should propel them into a profitable situation for their CyberDisplay
operations very shortly.
In projection products, we report that Taiwan-based Jean is now
shipping its first projector, and we cover recently introduced
projectors from Chunghwa Picture Tubes, Hitachi, Compaq, NEC,
Sharp and PLUS Vision. The PLUS product is a 2000 lumen DLP projector
while Sharp's is a 1900 lumen DLP model - the first DLP product
that Sharp has made totally in house.
|
