Nichia to make red laser diodes in-house
Accelerates production of higher efficiency and higher output products
Nichia, a GaN-based LED/LD manufacturer, has started in-house production of a high-power red laser diode (LD) chip and will sell laser packaged products including this chip in Spring 2024 with a focus on the laser projector market.
Nichia says in-house manufacturing will accelerate the development and commercialisation of red LD products with improved efficiency and output power.
Compared to those using conventional lamps or LED light sources, laser projectors with the three primary colours of red, green, and blue have the advantage of a much wider colour reproduction range, as well as the ability to achieve high brightness while maintaining compact sise and high efficiency. In recent years, the demand for such projectors has been rapidly increasing, not only for high-luminance movie theatre projectors, but also ones for individual consumers such as laser TVs and small smart projectors.
Nichia had been manufacturing blue and green LD chips in-house; however, the red LD chips had been procured from outside suppliers. This meant the quality, cost, and supply of red LD chips were dependent on suppliers, and the challenge was how to meet the various needs of customers. The company says the red LD chips used in existing products will now be gradually replaced with internally produced chips.
Nichia's QuaLas RGB is an example of an LD product with multiple RGB LD chips densely mounted in one small package. It will be one of Nichia's main products with in-house red LD chips. QuaLas' optical output power in each RGB colour is 8.3W for blue (wavelength: typ. 465nm), 4.8W for green (wavelength: typ. 525nm), and 10.0W for red (wavelength: typ. 643nm), suggesting a suitable combination for providing a good white balance for the display.
