Prysm Aims for Energy Efficient Displays, with Frickin' Lasers!

Lasers have performed wonders over the years but can they push display technology into an era of super-efficient screens? One San Jose, Calif.-based startup is betting on it.

Founded in 2005, Prysm exited stealth mode this week with the introduction of its Laser Phosphor Display (LPD) technology. At first, shooting lasers doesn’t sound like the greenest way to go about driving a display, but the firm’s co-founder and CTO, Rojer Roger Hajjar, says that the efficiencies derived from its approach are like “going from an incandescent light bulb to a white LED light.” According to the company, their LPD display tech uses up to 70 percent less electricity than conventional display technologies like plasma and can be fashioned into just about any shape.

The key to LPD’s energy-sipping ways is in how it illuminates the screen says Hajjar. In most displays, “you lose a lot of light because you need to polarize or filter [it],” meaning a lot of wasted electricity. LPD relies on a system of mirrors and solid-state laser diodes to trace an image across a phosphor-lined screen. Since the diodes can produce beams of varying intensity — or produce no beam at all — power is delivered to the screen in precisely the amount required to deliver an image. Not a fraction of a watt more or less. And unlike Mitsubishi’s LaserVue TVs, LPD is not a rear projection system.

According to Prysm, this results in a vivid, high-resolution screen that renders motion smoothly and is both easy on the eyes and budget. Seems like a dream come true for home theater enthusiasts, right? Unfortunately, you’re in for a bit of a wait.

While the technology has the potential to scale down to mobile handsets, right now the 100-person startup is targeting the commercial A/V industry, meaning specialty “large format” displays like massive digital signage and event video, according to Dana Corey, VP of Sales and Marketing. The move helps Prysm validate the technology in a space where customers have strict demands on performance, longevity and both capital and ongoing expenditures.

Prysm’s CEO and co-founder, Amit Jain, notes that low power consumption alone takes a big bite out of those costs and helps his tech compare favorably to displays that would otherwise consume thousands of watts (think Vegas) and can rack up yearly seven-figure energy bills yearly.

Prysm scores more eco-points by boasting low-impact, non-toxic manufacturing processes. Additionally, says Jain, Prysm takes into account “the whole green cycle,” meaning that the company is keeping water and power consumption in check, promoting recyclability, and of course, curbing CO2 emissions whenever possible.

Besides being the exclusive manufacturer, Jain also reveals that the company “completely owns” the technology, sidestepping potentially thorny licensing and IP issues that doomed the once-promising SED technology (surface-conduction electron-emitter display). So if LPD takes off in the large format market, chances are good that the company will be on a solid footing when/if it tackles the consumer market.

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