High Brightness LED Multiplexing for Professional Video Projection

During the past 15 years massive advances in projection technology have been made, based
on the development oflight modulators, such as DLP, LCD and L-COS. Digital Projection
Ltd (DPL) has been at the forefront of this revolution. In the next 5 years the disruption in the
market will be caused by radical changes to the light sources within the projectors. Currently,
the brightest projectors use xenon arc lamps, whilst those in the mid and lower ranges use
high pressure mercury discharge. Our strategy is to develop and manufacture a range of
products using solid state light sources: at the highest end, lasers; at the mid and lower end,
LED's. LED's have the potential to deliver major benefits over conventional lamps in terms
of life, efficiency, reliability, image quality, ownership cost and environmental impact. They
also enable architectural changes to product design ~will open up new applications and
markets. DPL has already embarked on the development of laser-light sources, but needs
urgently to address the much wider market potential of LED's to replace mercury lamps.
LED's presently offer great colour and life, but they do not couple efficiently into projector
optics. The novel techniques described in this proposal overcome this limitation. The
Northwest Photonics Strategy document lists in its Executive Summary the key role of High
Brightness LED's and notes the pressures facing Photonics SME's. This project should act as a
catalyst to help DPL address this.