Pico projector

A projector made for flexible applications. The projector is smaller than 4 centimetres and could be integrated into future mobile phones. Future versions will be able to project images in the size of a TV screen.

Construction of a pico projector

Microvisions pico projector is made of four parts: the MEMS (Micro-Electronic-Mechanic-System) scanner, a red, green and blue laser beam, a special optical system and electronics. The electronics receives the signal, processes it, controls the colour mixture and the position of each pixel and controls the MEMS-Scanner. Each pixel is made up by combining the three laser beams. The intensity of each beam can be adjusted to create a big variety of colours and grey scales. The scanning MEMS scanner controls these multicolour radiation and successions and sends them line by line to their position to creating a complete picture.

MEMS-mirror,laserbeam,optic, electronics.

A very similar technique is used in the Texas Instruments DLP-projectors.

Scope

The big advantage is the mobility of this projector. You can present photos of a camera or a mobile phone to friends or work colleagues via projection onto a white wall, or you can watch a movie during a train ride.

Challenge

Red lasers are used in any CD drive, the blue laser in the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD drives, so the procurement of this two is not very difficult. But green laser yet has not been produced for industrial use and was therefore difficult in matching the size and producing the number of units to have a sensible price. This problem has now been solved. The actual challange is to replace the still expensive laser trough cheaper LEDs.