SBIR Phase I: RGB upconverted laser backlights for LCDs

该小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一期项目将开发一种用于液晶显示器（LCD）的新型红、绿色和蓝色（RGB）背光，该背光可以提供低成本、高效率、高图像质量和低电压。虽然LCD在计算机、通信和娱乐领域占据主导地位，但由于缺乏低成本、高质量的RGB背光，它们在图像质量和效率方面仍然受到限制。这种RGB背光的缺乏是由于与可用技术相关联的高成本的市场障碍。拟议的项目研究了一种使用激光上转换的LCD背光的变革性方法，该方法可以通过在背光子系统层面采用新材料，光子器件结构和集成技术来实现非常低的成本。此外，第一阶段项目通过色彩和2D调制，提高分辨率、色彩和图像对比度，并消除对昂贵的LCD彩色滤光片的需求，从而大幅改善LCD系统级性能。如果成功的关键好处之一，这一结果是，提高性能将降低成本显示系统。LCD已成为教育、科学、医疗、政府、安全和娱乐领域信息显示的主导技术。很少有其他技术对美国和世界社会产生如此广泛的影响。LCD的影响来自其数十亿美元的世界市场及其各种应用。这SBIR的努力作为其目标，通过开发低成本的RGB背光液晶显示器的进一步发展。它将对美国经济至关重要的市场部门的技术进步的重要机会与基础科学和新材料的合作努力与大学研究人员结合起来，以实现这一目标。新技术为大学开发的新概念的快速发展和商业化提供了机会。此外，该技术可能会在汽车照明、指示灯和其他显示技术中找到新的应用。研究工作的目标是在子系统层面整合新材料和设备，为每个领先市场领域的LCD提供清晰的技术创新路径。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop a new type of red, green, and blue (RGB) backlight for liquid crystal displays (LCD) that can provide low cost, high efficiency, high image quality, and low voltage. While LCDs dominate computers, communication, and entertainment, they remain limited in their image quality and efficiency by the lack of a low cost, high quality RGB backlight. This lack of RGB backlighting is due to the market barrier of the high cost associated with the available technologies. The proposed project investigates a transformative approach to LCD backlighting using laser up-conversion that can reach very low cost by incorporating new materials, photonic device structures, and integration techniques at the backlight subsystem level. In addition, the Phase I project enables a dramatic improvement in the LCD system level performance through color and 2D modulation with increased resolution, color and image contrast, and elimination of the need for expensive LCD color filters. If successful one of the key benefits of this outcome is that the increased performance will reduce the cost displays systems. The LCD has become the dominant technology for information display in education, science, health care, government, security, and entertainment. Few other technologies have had as broad an impact on the U.S. and world societies. The LCD impact comes from its multibillion-dollar world market and in its diverse range of applications. This SBIR effort has as its goal furtherance of LCD displays by developing low cost RGB backlighting. It combines an important opportunity for technology advancement in a market sector important to the U.S. economy with a collaborative effort in basic science and new materials with university researchers to achieve this goal. The new technology offers the opportunity for rapid development and commercialization of new university developed concepts. In addition, the technology may find new applications in automotive lighting, indicator lamps, and other display technologies. The research effort targets integration of new materials and devices at the subsystem level, with a clear technology path to innovation for LCDs in each of the leading market sectors.