Updated Report Available on Laser Projection Systems

Michael A. Greenwood

An updated market report on the use of lasers as an illumination source for projection systems has been released by Insight Media of Norwalk, Conn.

The report, “2007 Laser Projection Systems,” covers three main areas: the technology of the lasers themselves, the technology of the projection systems that can use lasers and, finally, the cost of the lasers.

Although lasers as light sources for projectors have been proposed for more than 40 years, their prohibitive cost has so far prevented their use in projectors. For example, a rear-projection television system would require three lasers, each with about 3 W of output power and with wavelengths of 630, 532 and 462 nm for red, green and blue, respectively.

According to the report, this set of lasers must cost no more than about $150 for the technology to be competitive with lamps in the rear-projection television market. Currently, the unit price of this laser set would be more than $100,000. The updated report discusses how newer-technology lasers, specifically designed for display markets, are emerging from several companies. Prices will not fall to the $150 mark in 2008, but they are starting to come within reach.

The report, which originally was released in early 2006, is intended to supply technologists, managers, product planners, engineers and researchers with the information they need to evaluate laser technology in proposed projection displays. It provides forecasts from 2007 to 2012 and evaluates lasers with output power ranging from a few milliwatts to 5 W. Companion reports document the use of laser projectors in nine current and emerging projection markets. Three of these market reports are now complete, including visualization and simulation, D-cinema, and other large venues and picoprojector markets. The other market reports, plus an updated LED projection report, are due out in March 2008.