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Brillian Corporation (Tempe, AZ) (www.brilliancorp.com)
has announced that JDS Uniphase subsidiary OCLI (Santa Rosa, CA)
(www.ocli.com) will provide
the light engine for Brillian's 720p rear-projection HDTVs. JDS
Uniphase will provide Brillian with a complete engine subassembly,
including a color management system, imaging optics and illumination
source.
Brillian manufactures its Gen II LCOS panels here in the US and
has recently embarked on a new strategic move to offer full HDTVs
on an OEM/ODM basis. Prototypes of the new RPTVs were shown at
CES (see related news story in RPTV section).
"JDS Uniphase not only has a proven track record in both
the projection and microdisplay light engine market, but also
provides us with critical technology and time-to-market advantages,"
commented Vincent Sollitto, Jr., president and CEO, Brillian.
"We invested $2M to develop the TV technology and tooling,
and now we have the component and manufacturing partners to make
this TV a reality. We couldn't have done this two years ago, but
DLP technology has created the infrastructure that means we can
bring this to market with high confidence."
The electronics will be done in Asia, for example, and the set
will be assembled in a Tijuana, Mexico plant that is already doing
DLP-RPTV assembly. "We hope this is the breakthrough TV that
finally lets LCOS become a commercial success," explained
Sollitto.
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The engine will use three LCOS panels and the UltreX-3 design
developed by ADO. "We evaluated our panels with the ColorQuad
and achieved contrast of 1100:1, and with the Vikuiti 3M core,
we got 2000:1," says Sollitto. "But the UltreX-3
architecture produced 2500:1, so we decided to use that one."On
a recent company visit to Advanced Digital Optics (ADO), the
company that developed the UltreX-3 design and has now licensed
manufacturing rights to JDSU, we had a chance to see its new
mass-production design of the UltreX-3 kernel. This kernel
features no solid glass PBS units, using only Moxtek polarizers,
along with three LCOS panels. The design is quite compact
and looks to be very manufacturable. |
Performance is impressive too. Using mirrors and QWP to replace
the LCOS panels, contrast comes in at around 13,000:1, verifying
that performance will be panel limited. ANSI uniformity is greater
than 85%, and there is no thermal stress birefringence, since
no solid PBS elements are used.
If all goes as planned, Brillian will make about 25% gross margin
on its products and a 13% operating profit once it hits revenues
of $20 to $25M per quarter. To do this, it figures it has to sell
only 6 to 7K RPTV sets per quarter.
Sollitto explained that even with LCOS yields in the 20 to 40%
range, they could execute their business plan and be successful.
By 2006, he thinks a 65-inch LCOS-RPTV could cost as little as
$2,500.
We like the plan, now they have to execute.
Brillian, Vince Sollitto, 602-389-8803, vince.sollitto@brilliancorp.com
JDSU, Tony McGettigan, 707-547-6142, tony_mcgettigan@ocli.com
ADO, Michael Newell, 805-497-1771, mnewell@advopt.com
Contact:
Insight Media
Annmarie Gabisch, 203-831-8464
annmarie@insightmedia.info
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