10 October, Sydney, Australia. Soon to be listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, technology company Arasor International and its US partner Novalux unveiled a laser driven television promising twice the picture quality of plasmas and LCDs, at half the price and a quarter of the power consumption. Arasor International is to list on the Australian Stock Exchange next week.

Arasor manufactures a unique optoelectronic chip which forms the basis for a laser projection product being developed by Novalux. Optoelectronics combines optics together with electronics for emitting, modulating, transmitting, and sensing light signals.

Big brands such as Mitsubishi and Samsung are planning to launch laser televisions for Christmas 2007. Novalux chief executive Jean-Michel Pelaprat has been bold enough to predict the death of plasma, expecting laser televisions to dominate the market for flat panel televisions over 40 inches. The Mitsubishi television at the unveiling was actually displayed at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

The most significant first impression must be its ability to display 90% of the color gamut visible to the human eye as opposed to the meager 30-35% possible with current displays. Along with the price and energy efficiency Arasor-Novalux laser technology televisions promise to be half the weight and depth of plasma TVs.

According to Arasor’s Prospectus their core optical chip technology also enables them to effectively “design” optical processing functions into chips that process the red, blue and green colors light for display illumination. The optical chips can be produced at a cost which will shift laser driven displays from high cost niche markets into consumer markets. Arasor are able to utilize large scale wafer manufacturing, common to the semiconductor industry ensuring scalability to high volume manufacturing at low cost.

It’s interesting to note the wide range of companies supplied Arasor International’s technical solutions: China Network Communications Group Corporation, Fibrehome Technologies Co., Ltd., Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., Nomad Networks Pty Ltd, Novalux Inc., Pirelli Broadband Solutions S.p.A, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Texas Instruments Inc.

Arasor’s initial end customers in the consumer optoelectronic display area, include Seiko-Epson Corp, Texas Instruments Inc. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp.

Consumers should expect this new laser display technology to penetrate the rear projection TV and the digital projector markets in the near future. Cell phone embedded projectors are already being trialed.

Further Reading

Read Presentation Technology Review’s article on Novalux’s NECEL Technology Laser Pocket Projection – Novalux’s NECSEL Technology Review.