Forget LCDs and LEDs, Here Come LPDs

waderoush writes "It's not every day you hear about a brand new display technology, but San Jose, CA-based Prysm came out of stealth mode yesterday to talk about its plans for manufacturing laser phosphor displays, or LPDs. The new devices, which the company will show off at the Integrated Systems Europe trade show in Amsterdam next month, reportedly use 25 percent as much electricity as equivalently-sized LCD screens. And they should be easier to manufacture too, since they don't have a backplane of transistors like LCD screens: the image is generated by a laser beam that sweeps across phosphor stripes under the control of a scanning mirror. The venture-funded startup, which plans to build and sell LPD screens under its own brand, is promoting them as a low-cost, low-maintenance way to display information in lobbies, airports, broadcast studios, command centers, and the like."

Comments

How Thick is the Display?

[eldavojohn]

And they should be easier to manufacture too, since they don't have a backplane of transistors like LCD screens: the image is generated by a laser beam that sweeps across phosphor stripes under the control of a scanning mirror.

Of all the information I can find, no one is addressing the thickness of the display unit. I'm not saying it can't be done in close quarters but I'm basically inquiring how thick the unit must be in order for a laser beam to sweep across the phospher stripes that comprise the screen? Are we talking about moving back towards the sizes of back projector displays? Because it might not matter how efficient or awesome the picture display is to the consumer.

I guess that might explain why they're targeting airports and malls and not your living room.

I believe this particular patent image illustrates what I'm wondering about (Roger Hajjar is one of Prysm's founders).

CA-based Prysm came out of stealth mode yesterday

No one can fly under the radar when they need to patent their invention:
Laser displays using UV-excitable phosphors emitting visible colored light
Laser vector scanner systems with display screens having optical fluorescent materials
Optical designs for scanning beam display systems using fluorescent screens
Phosphor Compositions For Scanning Beam Displays

Prysm's founders (Amit Jain and Roger Hajjar) have had their names on quite a few display related patents since 2005. I'm excited a small startup can enter this market but I'm skeptical of the marketability due to the one drawback: a step backwards in compactness and style.

Re:How Thick is the Display?

[Zediker]

They shouldnt be any worse than the existing DLP displays which are quite thin since they both utilize similar technology: scanning micro mirrors.

Re:How Thick is the Display?

[Lord Lode]

Would you draw more power with 16 lasers? Each laser needs to cover only 1/16th of the area so theoretically also 1/16th of the power (for the same overall brightness).

Re:How Thick is the Display?

[cyberbrian]

According to: http://www.prysm.com/about_lpd.html
The technique uses an array of solid state laser diodes.

So...it sounds like the system will not require a large depth, since there is not a single laser trying to excite all phosphors on the display.

Re:How Thick is the Display?

[Angst Badger]

"Ordinary" light in this case is incoherent light, i.e., light in which the individual waves are not synchronized with each other, either by being out of phase or being of different wavelengths, usually both. This is the kind of light that comes from most light sources. Laser light is coherent: it's (mostly) all one wavelength and the peaks and troughs of the waves are all synchronized.

Re:phosphor burn?

[Anonymous Coward]

Phosphor burn is massively overstated. I'm still using the same 19" Hitachi I got in 1997 as my regular computer monitor and there's zero evidence of phosphor burn. It's also still bright enough to use under bright fluorescent lighting (and more than bright enough to use in a dungeon environment).