Syndiant

Syndiant's CEO has posted an interesting blog post, in which he (obviously) claims that their pico-projector modules are the best. He posted a photo showing how their SVGA module compares against 3 others: Micron's VGA, a DLP HVGA and a Himax color-filter VGA:

The Syndiant's image looks indeed the best - although we can't really tell until we do an impartial test of course (and we'd love to see how it compares to Microvision's laser Show WX). We'll have to wait till a real pico-projector based on this module is released. But if the quality is so good, that'll be very exciting.

Shanghai Sanxin Technology Development Company (SSTDC) has announced a new laser based pico-projector module. The SEE100 uses Syndiant's SYL2010 (SVGA, 800x600) microdisplay, and has 10 lumens brightness at 1.4W. The whole thing is just 39mm by 24mm by 7.8mm or 7.3cc. The SE100 is already being demonstrated to select customers around the world, and is aimed to be used inside smartphones. We're hoping to see a phones with this module arrive in 2010.

SSTDC has released the world's first laser projector (the Laseno SMP-101) back in September 2009.

Syndiant and Foryou have announced an upcoming pico-projector that uses Syndiant's SYL2061 LCoS panel (announced in September 2009), supporting 1,024x600 resolution. We don't have any more details yet, but the company showed two prototypes, designed by Astri (an R&D technology development organization)

Via Engadget

A few weeks ago Syndiant announced 3 new pico projector modules. One of them is the SYL2041 that supports both SVGA (800x600) and WVGA (854x480) resolutions. Here's a photo of a 120" projected image from that module (from Syndiant's CTO blog):

SYL2041 demo, photograph by Syndiant

As you can see, the Arial 8 point font is clearly readable.

The demo projector is about 14mm thick - about the same size of an iPhone. It has 17 lumens of light output. Syndiant say that there are over a dozen companies with plans for products based on this new module. Most of them are expected to include media players, have 20 to 50 (or more!) lumens output, and be smaller than the demo projector they show here. Some of these will be shown at CES (January 2010), with production in 2010. They hope that a few will be announced in 2009.

Syndiant has two basic microdisplay families: one is of the larger type for media players (or stand-alone projectors), and smaller modules for embedded products (projector phones and cameras).

The smaller size microdisplays are:

Syndiant has signed a couple of new distribution agreements with World Peace Industrial Co., Ltd. (WPI) and G.M.I. Technology Inc. This is due to 'growing interest in their LCoS microdisplays panels'. The two companies will distribute Syndiant's pico-projector modules in Greater China.

A Chinese company called Shanghai Sanxin Technology Development (SSTDC) will be launching the world's first laser-based projector, the Laseno SMP-101. It uses an LCoS microdisplay (it is not a laser-beam-steering projector like Microvision's PicoP), made by Syndiant (SYL2010).

The SMP-101 supports SVGA (800x600) resolution, 250:1 contrast and over 20 lumens. It is also focus free. It is also a PMP with 2Gb of internal memory, and a USB host connection. It supports a lot of formats (such as Office documents, PDFs, photos and videos such as AVI, MP4, DivX, H.264 and more).

Syndiant says that SSTDC have ordered several tens of thousands units of the SYL2010.

Syndiant has announced 3 new pico projector modules:

• The SYL2030: WVGA (854x480) resolution, only 6 mm tall. 
• The SYL2041: SVGA (800x600) and WVGA (854x480) resolutions.
• The SYL2061: Wide SVGA (1,024x600) resolution.

Syndiant has also announced an ASIC controller (the SYA1012) that converts video signals into an efficient format used by the company’s LCOS display panels, which enables integration into a wide array of pico projection systems due to its high level of programmability and interface flexibility.

Syndiant SYL2061

Engineering samples are immediately available with production quantities available in Q4 2009.

Syndiant has recently raised 10.7M$. We have talked with Syndiant's CTO a few weeks ago.

VentureBeat reports that Syndiant has raised 10.7M$, mostly from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund (TETF), which previously invested 3.6M$ in March. The rest came from private investors. 

We have talked with Syndiant's CTO a few weeks ago. Syndiant are working on LCoS pico projectors, and their first product the SYL2010 (with a 800x600 or 854x480 resolution) is already sampling. 

Syndiant is working towards Field-Sequential-LCoS microdisplays for pico projectors, driven be either laser or LED. Syndiant's CTO, Karl Guttag, wrote an interesting blog post a few weeks ago, giving his views on different projection technologies. One of his claims was that Laser-Beam-Steering (LBS) is "not viable", which resulted in a "reply-post" in Microvision's own blog.

Karl has agreed to answer a few questions we had, and hopefully this interview will clarify things a bit. Obviously we'll have to wait a few years to find out who is right, and whether LBS projectors will be successful or not...

Karl is the CTO and co-founder of Syndiant, and has 32 years of experience in semiconductors. Prior to Syndiant, Karl worked at Texas Instruments and Silicon Display. Karl is named as inventor on 138 issued US patents, including some for LCoS microdisplays. Karl has an M.Sc from the University of Michigan.

Q. Karl, thanks again for this interview. Can you give us some background info on Syndiant and your pico projector solution and products?

Syndiant was founded in 2004 to develop Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCOS) microdisplays with all-digital display processor on the silicon. Syndiant’s first devices were 1920x1080P with over 12-bits per pixel of color depth aimed at the rear projection television (RPTV) market. Seeing the decline in RPTV and having developed small pixels with a programmable architecture, Syndiant found that its technology could support small high resolution microdisplays for the emerging pico projector market.

Syndiant is the leader in high resolution microdisplays in small packages. We are currently sampling the SYL2010 with 854x600 true pixels, the highest resolution device that is less than 7mm tall. Syndiant is working on devices under 6mm tall and devices with higher resolution.

Microvision has posted an interesting blog post about their upcoming PicoP MEMS Laser-based projector (and module), comparing it to a DLP/LCoS solution. I think this might be a response to Syndiant claims that Laser projectors are simply not viable.

Here's what Microvision Says:

• Laser projectors do not need a focus, which is really a 'wow' factor, and DLP or LCoS will never be able to achieve this
• The PicoP consumes much less energy than DLP or LCoS.
• Speckle will not effect users adoption of Laser (they admit that Speckle is an issue, but they say it's not serious).
• Laser projectors are sharper, has better uniform brightness and display better colors.
• When the green lases ramps up, they believe that the PicoP module will cost the same as a DLP or LCoS solution.

bTendo laser projector vs an LCoS projector

Basically that's the same as we hear from Maradin and bTendo, both into laser projectors as well.