This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project proposes novel MEMS and electro-optical system designs and manufacturing processes to create world's first high definition video micro-projectors that are so miniaturized, low-cost, and low power consuming that they can be integrated in the near future with a variety of mobile devices, such as cell-phones and netbooks. The proposed display engine for mobile video projectors consists of fast-modulated RGB (red, green, and blue) lasers scanned pixel-by-pixel by MEMS scanning mirrors over a display surface at HD (high definition) video rates. Such projected images will not require focusing at any distance and with an incredible color range and quality due to the use of laser light. In addition to requiring significantly faster, larger, wider-angle scanning, and optically flatter MEMS mirrors than available today, the proposed system may also require innovative packaging, and faster and more power-efficient laser drivers, which are not available off the shelf. Packaging all of the display engine components into a small form factor will require significant efforts in optomechanical engineering and solutions in proper heat transfer. Phase I work will provide the proof of concept studies and design work for the display engine.
The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is to satisfy future needs of consumers who will demand ever-larger display capabilities in ever-shrinking mobile devices. Pico-projectors will be used with or integrated into computers, cell phones, PDAs, or other portable electronic devices with an estimated market size of over $1 billion within the next 5 years. Successful commercialization of the proposed high definition pico-projector display engine would have many societal and commercial impacts. Display sizes would be finally decoupled from the limitations of the mobile device sizes. Movies, business presentations, images, social networking web sites, etc. could be more comfortably viewed and shared. There are new possibilities in programmable board-games, adaptive home-decoration, and others. It is believed that the high-resolution (XGA and HD 720p) and highest power efficiency (>10 lumens/W) of the proposed technology can fully realize these impacts and capture the markets. This technology, in parallel to the ever-increasing availability of high-speed networks, will in turn increase the ability to more readily share business information and accelerate the distribution of entertainment content even more than it has already.
