Sony to Migrate LCoS to More Core TV Applications, Executive Says

Sony SXRD and LCD-based rear projection TVs, now split off by price deltas of $1,000 or more, will edge close in cost as LCoS technology matures, Phipps said. “We eventually will migrate toward all LCoS in consumer rear screen technology,” he said: “At this point, it’s a question of maturing the technology -- all the optics, the polarizers, the beam splitters, are all very expensive. The biggest limiting factor is the optical efficiencies aren’t there yet, which drives up cost.”

Sony has put LCoS technology into rear projection TVs and front projectors, but improving the optical system is critical for SXRD to compete with LCD and DLP, Phipps said. Comparing lamp size vs. light output, SXRD lags behind DLP and LCD by a “factor of 2,” he said: “If you look at the lamp size vs. light output from the device, it’s not there yet. If you were to compare LCoS to polysilicon LCD , it’s almost like we're back in the mid-80s. That’s where it is in the development technology.”

Sony, which fields 0.61” and 1.3” SXRD panels for rear projection TVs and front projectors, respectively, likely will add a 3rd size around 1.0”, Phipps said. Availability and other details on the new SXRD panel aren’t final, he said: “The issue is the bigger the panel, the brighter you can make the image. But every time we change panel size, we have to change the optics and everything else. Unlike DLP and polysilicon LCD where there are a myriad of optical manufacturers, in many cases we have to make our own” components for SXRD products. DLP and LCD component suppliers compete, cutting optics costs, he said, noting that LCOS has fewer component vendors.

All SXRD panels have 1920x1080p resolution, but Sony has no immediate plans to expand that to LCDs below the 1.3” size, Phipps said. Epson, the other major microdisplay LCD supplier, has a 0.9” panel with 1,920x1,080p resolution and is said to have plans for 0.7”. “That’s the magical question because we're already making SXRD with 1920x1080p,” Phipps said. Sony has a 1.3” LCD with 1920x1080 resolution, but it’s not deployed in the company’s front projectors, he said.

In LCD, Sony revived an OEM business it suspended in 2004 trying to fill internal demand for panels for rear projection TVs and front projectors, Phipps said. Most OEM panels being supplied are 1.3”, he said. Sony’s shift from OEM drove long-time customers like Sharp and Toshiba to widen DLP-based front projector lines. “We got out of the OEM business because with the explosion of the rear projection market, we couldn’t make enough panels for our internal use,” he said: “We make TVs, that’s what we do, so we had to concentrate on that. We've increased our production so we're back in the OEM business.”

Meanwhile, Sony is expected at Infocomm today to unveil its VPL-CX63 front projector, featuring 0.79” LCD panels, a 190-w lamp delivering 3,000 lumens, 60% aperture ratio and $2,800 street price.

Projection Summit Notebook…

The “next logical step” for DLP is for TI to halve the size of its smallest DLP chip (0.43"), Hans-Joachim Stohr, dir. of sales & business development at Sypro, said. John Reder, TI mgr.-worldwide strategy & business development, declined comment. But if TI were to move to a sub-0.43” size, it likely would favor a switch in light sources to laser from UHP, since that chip probably would see use in so- called pocket projectors, Reder said. “We're in the semiconductor business and that’s what you continue to do” -- shrink display size, he said. There are no immediate plans to deploy DLP chips with native 1080p resolution in rear projection TVs because TI’s proprietary Smooth Picture technology appears to satisfy consumers, Reder said, noting that TI has shipped a 0.95” DLP chip with 1920x1080p resolution being deployed in high-end front projectors. While DisplaySearch has forecast 1080p resolution accounting for 50% of TV sales by 2010, Reder said TI believes that goal could be achieved sooner. But he wouldn’t be more precise.

----

As Mitsubishi evaluates Novalux lasers for use in rear projection TVs, it has no formal agreement with the company, Mktg. Vp Frank DeMartin said. Mitsubishi, which has shown a prototype 52W laser-based DLP rear projection TV, is expected to ship a set larger than 60” in late 2007, though DeMartin admitted much of the “action” in laser TV won’t occur until a year later. DeMartin expects 600,000 units of laser TVs to ship by 2010, with Mitsubishi dominant in screen sizes up to 100”. Mitsubishi sets will feature a 10” maximum depth and be nearly flat at the edges, so they'll hang on a wall, DeMartin said. Novalux Mktg. Vp Gregory Niven listed Mitsubishi as a potential customer in a presentation Mon., alongside Epson, which has a formal pact with Novalux. Epson is expected to start making modules based on Novalux lasers by mid-2007 and field a laser-based front projector early in 2008, Niven said. “Novalux definitely has the lead among companies that have been public about their information,” but Mitsubishi has its own proprietary technology, DeMartin said.

----

Scram Technologies parted ways with Samsung and partnered with Fuji, which will start volume production of its polymer-based screens for rear projection TVs within 6 months at its Greenwood, S.C., plant, said Chief Technical Officer James Shanley. At same time, Scram closed its Rockland, Mass., plant that previously produced the screens for commercial applications, laying off 10 employees and moving the 20 machines there to the Fuji complex, Shanley said. The Fuji plant, which also makes consumer photo film, will have an initial monthly capacity of 5,000-10,000 units, Shanley said. Scram’s technology combines a lens that compresses a projected image, with a screen that decompresses it. The screen is made of polymer light guides. To produce it, 4 alternating layers of polymer sheets are laminated together. On both sides of the clear polymer core layer, a cladding layer is added. Matching black polymer layers complete the light guide. The black polymer sheets create a light-wave guide within the clear polymer, helping absorb ambient light and increasing the apparent contrast of the screen. The wave-guide’s thickness varies and Scram has produced 5-, 15- and 20-mil versions -- mils representing a measurement of total coating thickness, company officials said. Scram’s technology landed it in the N.Y. Times in 2003 and it later announced the alliance with Samsung, which failed to produce a product. Scram has since designed a 52W LED-based rear projection TV with a 10” depth using its own optical engine design, Shanley said. Among its licensees is Shanghai Video (SVA), which is using its screen technology in 50-55” rear projection TVs targeting the Asian market. In addition to the consumer business, Scram established subsidiary Combat Technologies, which will target military applications -- cockpit displays. Scram is developing a replacement for 6x8” CRT-based displays in F-18 jet fighters that combines a 0.55” DLP with an LED light engine. The display contains 768x768 resolution, 8,000:1 contrast ratio and 500 ft. lamberts. Prototypes of the F-18 display will be delivered in Dec., Shanley said.

----

3M Precision Optics will complete the move of its rear projection TV CRT lens manufacturing operations to its Suzhou, China plant from Cincinnati by late July, breaking another link to the heritage of TV tube making in the U.S. 3M Precision Optics, born from 3M’s purchase of Corning Precision Lens in 2002, has cut its Cincinnati workforce, which once numbered 1,500, to 240. The Cincinnati operations are being consolidated into one building from 3 as 3M shift focus to optical components -- hollow light tunnels, optical cores and internal reflective prisms. 3M currently supplies optical cores, including polarizing beam splitters, to Syntax-Brillian for its Brillian brand 65W LCOS-based rear projection TVs. It also has license agreements with Taiwan’s ProDisc Technology and Young Optics for use of its Vikuiti brand total internal reflection prism in rear projection TVs. A 3rd company is expected to sign on within the next several weeks, Mktg. Mgr. Christopher Nitz said. 3M also is developing an LED illuminators LCOS- and DLP-based microdisplays that’s expected ship in the 2nd quarter of 2007, Nitz said. “Our device would provide the illumination input through the optical system,” Nitz said. “It shapes the light into the widescreen format” and uses advanced cooling technology to stabilize the LED’s temperature.