Laserati

World's First 640nm/60mW Red Laser Diode
Enables Transmission of Images from Electronic Devices

TOKYO & EATONTOWN, N.J., Oct 14, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Opnext, Inc. (NASDAQ:OPXT), a global leader in state-of-the-art laser technology, today announced the availability of the HL6387TG laser diode for use in miniature display applications. This new laser diode expands Opnext's addressable market by accelerating the company's entry into the miniature display market. The new diode can be built into miniature display systems, including those in personal computers, mobile phones and other mobile devices, making it possible to get an image of information anytime, anywhere.

"Opnext is dedicated to developing cutting-edge products to meet the latest market needs, such as the miniature display market," said Tadayuki Kanno, senior vice president Device Business Unit, Opnext. "With this new product, we are truly improving the consumer experience by providing better color reproducibility on a cell phone or other portable device, and helping our customers to meet consumer demand for new applications in the miniature display market."

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

This paper is out in time, when laser TV is hot.

Speckle suppression in scanning laser display, Victor Yurlov, Anatoly Lapchuk, Sangkyeong Yun, Jonghyeong Song, and Haengseok Yang, Applied Optics, Vol. 47, Issue 2, pp. 179-187.

Abstract
The theory of speckle noise in a scanning beam is presented. The general formulas for the calculation of speckle contrast, which apply to any scanning display, are obtained. It is shown that the main requirement for successful speckle suppression in a scanning display is a narrow autocorrelation peak and low sidelobe level in the autocorrelation function of the complex amplitude distribution across a scanning light beam. The simple formulas for speckle contrast for a beam with a narrow autocorrelation function peak were obtained. It was shown that application of a diffractive optical element (DOE) with a Barker code phase shape could use only natural display scanning motion for speckle suppression. DOE with a Barker code phase shape has a small size and may be deposited on the light modulator inside the depth of the focus of the reflected beam area, and therefore, it does not need an additional image plane and complicated relay optics.

Sycolaser, a Chinese laser TV company unveiled a 120 inch laser TV on the 10th China Beijing International High-tech Expo today. The official press release, which is in Chinese, can be found here.

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.