Collaboration To Develop Smartphones With Pico-Projectors

Singapore’s Institute of Microelectronics and Taiwan’s OPUS Microsystems will jointly develop micromirror technology for use in smartphones.

Asian Scientist (Jul. 17, 2013) – It may soon be possible to project photos and videos on any surface using a pico-projector on your smartphone. This vision moved closer to reality after Singapore’s Institute of Microelectronics (IME) and Taiwan’s OPUS Microsystems Corporation signed an agreement to jointly develop micromirror technology for use in smartphones.

Micromirror technology, also known as Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) scanning mirror devices, are used in light-modulating devices. Incorporating this technology in smartphones would enable the phones to project photos and videos on any surface, and with no constrains on the viewing screen size on the mobile devices.

To do this, the two parties will work together on the development of a slimmer and smaller MEMS scanning mirror. This will enable a compact pico-projector, or handheld projector, to be fabricated for smartphones applications. This high-resolution pico-projector would ultimately turn any surface into a display.

With consumers now using smartphones as a mobile entertainment center, the ability to project photos and videos on any surface is expected to be heavily incorporated into the next generation of smartphones.

“The interest in pico-projectors has gained traction in recent years, but the industry challenge remains in achieving a cutting edge technology that will allow the integration of a small-scale projector into smartphones while maintaining a high resolution output,” said Prof. Dim-Lee Kwong, Executive Director of IME.

The collaboration will build on IME’s extensive experience and knowledge in the field of MEMS and OPUS Microsystems’s expertise in MEMS scanning mirror devices.

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Source: A*STAR; Photo: jleeme40/Flickr.
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