JDS Uniphase -- OCLI Products Wins Circle of Excellence Award

The television industry is making a transition into liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) projection systems, especially for rear-projection TV. To meet the demand for higher uniformity and contrast in this technology, JDS Uniphase -- OCLI Products developed an LCoS engine built around UltreX technology. The company says that it produces uniform white states and dark states: 13,000:1 sequential contrast without panels and nearly perfect color uniformity. With panels, the company has achieved contrast in excess of 2500:1.

Unlike previous designs, this LCoS optical engine does not rely on glass polarizing beamsplitters or stretched films for separating color and polarization states. In addition, the light does not pass through any glass prior to the removal of the unwanted polarization state once the image has been established by the LCoS panel. This ensures that there is no inadvertent crosstalk between the desired and unwanted polarization states.

The Santa Rosa, Calif., company says the optical engine is based on the UltreX image kernel whose architecture consists of dichroics for setting the color points and uniformity, Proflux wire grid polarizers for polarization separation, an X-Cube for color recombination, a rigid mechanical structure for maintaining alignment and customized panel mounts.

The light engine was developed in conjunction with Advanced Digital Optics of Westlake Village, Calif.