Home projections are becoming more and more widely available. LED light sources have their own advantages.

Over the years, LCD LEDs and TVs have seen "LED light sources" with better effects and higher voices, and LEDs have a longer life span and a wider color gamut (NTSC color gamut can exceed 100%). More environmentally friendly (light bulbs do not contain mercury) and other characteristics have been widely used in the above two industries.

In the past two or three years, manufacturers have begun to apply LED light sources to projectors. We know that whether it is an LCD projector or a DLP projector, the light source technology is its core technology. At present, the projectors are widely used in metal halogen bulbs and ultra-high pressure mercury bulbs, which have high light efficiency and can output high brightness. However, it will bring about the complicated optical path structure and high requirements of the heat dissipation system, which will also affect the shrinkage of the projector volume. In addition, the life of these traditional light sources of 2000 to 3000 hours will greatly increase the cost of the projector. Based on these factors, the light source innovation of the projector will become an important direction of future technology development, and the application of the LED light source on the projector will become a key research and development project of the majority of projection manufacturers and scientific research units.

At this year's CES2009 International Consumer Electronics Show, we also found that LED light sources are widely used in many brands of projectors, such as Optoma's PK-101, BenQ GP1 and 3MMM200. In response to this situation, there are also a lot of people in the industry speculate that the annual LED projector will shine in the industry, and will be popularized in 2009, and there will even be a "Great Leap Forward." However, in my opinion, for LED projectors, it is not rational enough to make such a conclusion easily. There are still many factors that need to be weighed. The popularity of LED projections not only involves technical breakthroughs, but also will be affected by many market changes. In this article, the author will also discuss the popularization of LED projection with everyone, and comprehensively analyze the development of LED projection.

First of all, let's start with the LED projection and related background information:






LED projection is like a thunder

To talk about the advent of LED projection, we have to mention pocket projection. The so-called pocket projection, also known as micro-projection, or pocket projection, as the name suggests, is small enough size, so small that it can be easily put into the pocket, with super portable performance. In recent years, the projector industry has developed rapidly, and the machines have become increasingly smaller and lighter, and the pico projectors are in line with this trend.

Since the concept of pocket projection, the manufacturers represented by Toshiba and Optoma have been heavily involved in this highly promising market, constantly upgrading the portability of their products. Following this development trend, the application range of micro-projection is gradually expanding, and these micro-products can be applied in application industries such as business, home entertainment, and tourism.

The application of LED light source has opened up a new path for the miniaturization of the projector body. Due to the small size of the LED light source, it is very suitable for the development of smaller projector parts, making the projection product more portable, which is the basic feature of the pocket projection. It is exactly the same.

In fact, as early as three years ago, LED light sources have already begun to be applied to projectors. In March 2006, the concept mobile phone with projection function produced by Taiwan Warburg and INTEL was unveiled at the exhibition and attracted wide attention. The Korean company Iljin introduced a lithography projection device using laser technology, while Kopin Micro Display Technology Co., Ltd. Explay also showed the micro-projection product "Nano-Projector"; Toshiba also launched its first miniature projection TDP-FF1A at the beginning of the year, which is also a famous machine, such as Toshiba. The addition has greatly enhanced the manufacturer's confidence in projector miniaturization and LED light source applications.

However, the LED light source in this period can provide only a few tens of lumens, which can't meet the needs of thousands of lumens of daily projectors. Therefore, many related pocket projection products are just prototypes, only used as concepts in CES and other exhibitions. The machine was launched and did not achieve true mass production.

The development of LED light source achieved a certain breakthrough in 2008. The projector bulb manufacturer Osram developed a new LED light source system, which can increase the projection brightness to more than 500 lumens. At the same time, 3M's micro-optical engine officially entered the domestic market, and Suzhou localized production, and announced that its micro-projection entered the actual stage; the new micro-projection Samsung SP-P310ME with battery was also listed at the beginning of the year, this "this" The Mobile Cinema was also the lightest DLP pocket projection at the time; in the second half of the year, Optoma officially launched the world's thinnest DLP pocket projection PK-101, dedicated to making the projector a truly portable device. The famous products are also using LED light source technology.






In 2009, LED has once again become a hot word in the pocket projection industry, and many different brands of businesses have spared no effort in screaming for LED light sources. At the beginning of this year, Mitsubishi released the micro-injection XD95U using LED. Macro? also announced that it has entered this kind of projection market, and released the new K10, which weighs only 0.45kg; Dell has launched an LED palm with only one interface. The projector M109S, and its size is even smaller than the mouse; Motuview also released the world's first handheld projection using LCOS technology and LED light source. In addition, projection manufacturers such as 3M, Sony and Epson have expressed their desire to enter the LED projection market.

It can be said that the application of LED light source makes the projector take a solid step on the road of portability, and the appearance of these LED projections is like a thunder, which also makes many people in the industry believe that the LED projection will be released in 2009. Splendid.

Looking at the above introduction, we can find that the LED light source is basically only applied to portable projection in the past two years, and it is rarely used in other major projection fields.

We should note that home projectors have developed very rapidly in the past two years, and more and more projector vendors have also pulled the battle line to the home market. The projectors are often used as display devices, and users can achieve more than 100 inches at home. The large screen, combined with the 5.1-channel home theater system, everyone can easily enjoy the shocking effect of the cinema.

With this in mind, it would be highly promising if the LED source could be combined with a home projection. At this year's CES2009 exhibition, Taiwan's Qiling Company released the world's first LED 1080p projection, which uses an LED light source with a brightness of up to 1200 lumens, and is also the first LED projector with a brightness of more than 1000 lumens. In addition, the machine's dynamic contrast ratio can reach 5500:1, and the use of the ultimate color technology, projection imaging is also very outstanding.






Another one is the Vivitek HC7500A, which is also a household product at CES2009. It uses LED light source, the service life can be up to 20,000 hours, the nominal brightness is 700 lumens, the dynamic contrast is up to 35000:1, it is also the highest contrast product in LED projection, and it was launched in June this year. The appearance of the world has also caused widespread concern in the industry.

In addition, in recent years, the Otto code, which has made many achievements in the home projection market, also announced that it will launch a home projector using LED light source in the near future. Although it has not announced the specific model and time-to-market of the machine, the home projection industry is very popular. The LED projection products of the code are still much expected by the big guys.

Above we are talking about high-end home projectors, and then look at the other end of the field. The price of 1080P, 720P high-definition home projectors is generally higher, although its performance is exceptionally outstanding, the majority of audio-visual users still look at it much more, and really willing to buy less.

In June of this year, Newman released its first LED TV projector NM-PH03B. In addition to the increase in brightness, the physical resolution of the aircraft is also increased to 800*600 compared to the average entertainment portable machine, and the lamp life is up to 30,000 hours. It is worth mentioning that this machine also has built-in full-channel TV reception function, plug in the cable TV signal to watch TV programs.

Compared with the 1080P HD projector on the market, Newman NM-PH03B still has a big gap in performance parameters and technical indicators, but its price is very affordable. In addition, Newman's second- and third-tier cities are the main market, and the aircraft has achieved good sales performance once it was listed. In addition, it also has a long life of 30,000 hours, coupled with its unique TV reception function, Newman LED TV projection is also not to be underestimated.






With the continuous development of LED light source technology, we have also found that LED projectors are not only for the portable market, but also for the home market. Why is this? Not all because LED light source has its own advantages, the author below briefly introduces this issue.

The full English LED is LightEmittingDiode, which is what we usually call LEDs. The author is mainly engaged in research in this area at school. Generally speaking, LED is the carrier injected in the PN junction. After the minority carrier is combined with the majority carrier, the energy is released and the light is expressed in the form of light to realize electroluminescence.

The remarkable features of LED are high photoelectric conversion efficiency, high color saturation, volume filial vibration resistance, impact resistance, no toxic substances, low voltage power supply, safety to the human body, long life, etc., which are mainly used in anti-fog lighting in daily life. , indicators and so on. At present, traditional projections use UHE, UHP and other light bulbs, which have higher light efficiency and brightness, but are not conducive to system heat dissipation, and their life is still relatively short.

If the projector uses an LED light source, what advantages would it have? Firstly, the application of LED light source can open up a new path for the miniaturization of the projector body. Due to the small size of the LED light source, it is very suitable for developing smaller projector parts, making the projection product more portable; moreover, the LED is really meaningful. The cold light source on the work process does not generate a lot of heat like the traditional projection bulb, which is very beneficial to the heat dissipation of the projection product, and it is easier to control the noise. The long life of the LED light source means that the projector does not need to be as frequent as before. Replace the bulb and increase the cost of later use.

In addition, the color range is also an important performance indicator for measuring the projector. We know that projectors of traditional light sources, especially DLP products, require a color wheel to perform color separation because of the limited spectral range of the light source. The speed of the color wheel has a great influence on the color performance; although LCD products do not require color wheel for color separation, Color performance is much better than DLP, but still not satisfactory. According to the data provided by the authoritative organization, the projector of the traditional light source has a color gamut range of only about 65% of NTSC, and the color is missing more.






The appearance of LED light source can solve this problem well, and the white LED and RGB three primary color light sources are also very suitable for use in projectors. Among them, the solid color of RGB three-color LED light source is very high, and the illuminants of three colors are rotated in chronological order, and the color gamut range can easily reach more than 100%. Therefore, the application of the LED light source can make the color reproduction effect of the projector more outstanding.

Finally, the bulbs of traditional light sources contain mercury harmful to the human body. Although the content is very low, it still has more or less damage to the human body; while the LED light source does not contain any harmful elements, in this sense Look, LED is still more environmentally friendly.

However, the LED light source has the disadvantages of low cost control and insufficient brightness compared with the conventional projection light bulb, and any new thing is not smooth at the time of birth. As the majority of projector manufacturers pay more and more attention to it, the improvement efforts are gradually increasing. Over the years, the performance of LED light sources has been greatly improved. Compared with the old model in 2005, today's LED light source has better luminosity, greater power, better illuminating angle and better monochromatic luminescence performance, and has a larger deadly illuminance. Upgrade. The new LED light source also realizes AC and DC, which can better improve thermal management, which makes the application of LED light source on projection products more practical, which also provides a solid development for the pocket projection market. Base

We know that the application of LED light source on flat panel TV has been relatively mature, and a large number of experiments have also proved that LED light source will bring more perfect color performance to the projector. Nowadays, the application of LED light source on the projector is only in the initial stage. How can LED projectors pass the initial stage faster and achieve greater success in the future? Let's move on slowly:

From the above, we can see that although LED has many advantages as a projector light source, it still has many obvious defects, which is why it is still not widely used on projectors in the short term. It can be said that brightness is one of the biggest problems that plague the popularity of LED projectors.

Nowadays, there are some LED projector products with brightness above 1000 lumens. This brightness is suitable for home machine and portable projection, but it is not enough for daily applications, especially for business applications. Let's look at the lower-end projectors on the market, and their nominal brightness can generally reach 2000 lumens. In contrast, LED projections require more effort in terms of brightness if they want to do more in education, business, and engineering.






Let's take the Lixun H9080FD projection as an example. Its brightness also reaches 800 lumens. However, the luminous efficiency of its LED light source is not high enough. It can not achieve high brightness output while ensuring low power consumption. This is also our consumers. The request is still far away.

In general, we want to increase the brightness of the LED light source, the best way is to increase the number of LEDs. In other words, that is, to optimize the layout of the dot matrix LED light source, as long as the number of LED illuminators can be greatly increased, the nominal brightness of the projector can be multiplied.

However, the LED illuminator is to be used as a projector light source, and current projection products are emphasizing portability, and projection users are increasingly demanding product mobility. Therefore, the size of the LED light source can not be too large. If the number of LED illuminators is increased blindly, the size of the light source is greatly increased, and the size of the projector is also difficult to control. Moreover, the increase in the number will also cause the price of the LED light source to rise, which in turn causes the cost of the projection product to rise again, which makes the LED projection lose its advantage in price.

The nominal brightness of the LED projections mentioned above is relatively low. In addition, the high price will cause them to be far away from the popularity. After reading the above introduction, we know that most of the machines using LED light sources are micro projectors, and their market prices are mostly positioned at 5,000 yuan. For products with higher performance and configuration, the market will be higher. For example, Samsung's SP-P400B, when the market is on the market, the price is as high as 8,000 yuan. Aside from the LED light source, the other specifications are not much different from the entertainment projectors on the market. Although the price has now dropped to about 4,700 yuan, compared to the price of the general entertainment machine 3,000 yuan, such prices are not advantageous at this stage.

At present, LED projectors still have two obvious defects, such as low brightness and high price. It should also be the direction that the majority of LED projector manufacturers strive to improve, and hope to introduce more high-brightness and low-cost LED projection products. Regardless, many current consumers are always on the sidelines with regard to LED projection.

We know that LED projectors are still in the early stages of development. It is also because of its brightness and price, it is very irrational to think that it will be widely promoted in the near future. At present, only a few projector brands have launched related products, such as Optoma's PK-101, BenQ GP1 and 3MMM200 mobile phone-sized pocket projectors, as well as Samsung's SP-P400B, P410M and Lixun H9080FD. Wait for a home projector.

Compared with the entire projector market, the number of LED projection products is still very small, after all, it has large defects in brightness and price. This has also led many consumers to have no desire to purchase LED projections, and more are still on the sidelines. However, according to the survey, more consumers also hope to see LED projections have further improvement in brightness and cost performance, and they still expect great results.






After all, in addition to having a better picture color performance than ordinary heat source projectors, LED light sources also have superior lamp life. At present, the life of LED bulbs can be between 50,000 and 60,000 hours, while other projectors are far from this standard. Some professionals have done such experiments. Although the LED light source has a service life of tens of thousands of hours, the attenuation of the bulb is very small. Its attenuation curve is almost a horizontal straight line. If you use it for 5 hours every day, the LED projector can guarantee that you don't need to replace the bulb within 10 years, which can greatly save the cost of use.

In addition to the long lamp life, LED light source can make the projector easier to control the size of the whole machine, which is to achieve higher portability, which is why LED light source mostly creates pocket projection; LED is also a kind of cold light source. The heat is very small, we can not worry about the heat dissipation problem. The projection of this cold light source does not need to be equipped with a cooling fan, which is more conducive to the portableness of the projector.

However, since there are other heat-generating electronic components inside the projector, there is a certain need for heat dissipation. However, since there is no ordinary light bulb, the heat dissipation requirement is also greatly reduced, as long as ordinary passive or small active type is required. The cooling fan solves the problem. Therefore, LEDs are more prominent for portable projectors, and it is believed that they can provide more powerful help for the portable market in the future.

Think about it, if the LED pocket projection can raise the nominal brightness again, then everyone can get a clear projection picture anywhere when traveling, not only in the home projection market, but also in the business and education fields, the problem of brightness is solved. The quality of the projected picture is more guaranteed. The most important thing is that LED projection can save consumers more post-use costs.

In summary, the author believes that LED projectors may not be "Great Leap Forward" in 2009, especially in the field of business and education, the development of LED projections should be relatively limited. However, due to its unique advantages, the application of LED light source on the projector is still very promising, and LED projection will also be favored by more mass consumers. In any case, many of the miniature LED projectors and home projection products that emerged this year are good examples. If you can better overcome the bottleneck of brightness and price, the future of LED light source projectors is very bright.