CIE Components in Electronics
Announcing the solution at the Globalpress Electronic Summit in Santa Cruz, Susan Hardman, Senior Vice President of the Analog & Mixed Signal Products Group at Intersil said that the low cost system solution utilises Micron’s E330 compact 5.5 cubic centimetre qHD optical engine, allowing for easy integration into a wide range of applications, including Micron’s recently announced portable PoP Video pico projector mobile device accessory.
Built on an inexpensive 1.7 inch by 2 inch PCB, the Pico-qHD has been designed to meet the low manufacturing cost requirements of consumer applications such as digital cameras, smartphones, tablets, video players and other handheld products.
Driven by such applications, Pacific Media Associates forecasts pico projector sales of 58 million units per year by 2015.
“The emerging pico projector market could transform social sharing,” said Hardman. “Our pico projector technology offers a low cost solution which with easily customisable reference designs will provide customers with the flexibility to adapt pico projectors for their specific needs.”
Hardman suggested that current growth estimates for pico projector technologies were conservative. “Intersil expects to see the market accelerate over the next five years and that could be worth an additional $100m in revenues for the company.”
The platform is based on Intersil’s new ISL97901, a fully-integrated buck/boost RGGB LED driver that has been customised for pico projector display applications. The ISL97901 provides power efficiency, the smallest solution footprint and the ability to drive RGB, RGGB LEDs and is able to maintain image quality with precise current control. A 2.0mA resolution provides consistent white balance setting, yielding uniformity over production units and throughout the life of projectors. Its electronics system can drive up to 1.5A LED current, making it compatible with a variety of high power LEDs, and enabling pico projector engines with brightness levels exceeding 20 lumens.
The LED LCoS Pico Projector reference design integrates a broad range of Intersil products in addition to the ISL97901 buck-boost LED driver, including the TW8835 LCD video processor, ISL9307 power management IC, ISL9110 buck-boost converter, ISL9230 battery charger and, as an option, the ISL58333 OEIC sensor for automatic, real-time white balance control to maintain image quality and reduce optical calibration cost.
