Appotronics, a Hidden Unicorn Company in Laser Projector Era

Appotronics, a Hidden Unicorn Company in the Laser Projector Era

Perhaps some may have a memory of CES 2013 in which a product named Hecto TV which was made by LG got the grand award of “the Product of the Future” and “reddot design award”. It marked the birth of Laser TV! However, LG is not the owner of this technology which is called ALPD (Advanced Laser Phosphor Display), Appotronics Corporation is.

Appotronics Laser TV and LG Hecto TV Appotronics were built in Silicon Valley in the 2004. It was devoted to developing the core technology of the next generation of semiconductor light source, even brighter than LED. In 2006, Appotronics developed the overthrow ALPD technique. The first core patents was submitted to the US Patent Office.

AL-FX850 AL-FH850 AL-FU850 Laser extreme series 8500lm

In 2011, Appotronics moved to Shenzhen, the Silicon Valley in China. From then on, Appotronics launched many ALPD projectors in China market, beating IMAX technology in cinema. Now there are several hundreds cinemas using ALPD projectors. The Founder and CEO of Appotronics LIYI said “With the main focus on the China market, we suspended our global marketing step but made the products more mature and greater”. While LIYI respects Jobs and Ren Zhengfei ( CEO of Huawei ), he wanted to change the way people gain insights into viewing the world. Thus Laser is the future!

AL-UH450 (Laser ultra short-throw projector series 4800lm)

“Advanced Laser Phosphor Display”, or abbreviated as ALPD, uses blue laser based on GaN to stimulate the moving fluorescent materials to produce one or more primary colors, and is applied to image display. It is the core technology for high brightness image display.

Traditional image display devices adopt HID bulb light source to display colourful images. But these bulbs have their shortcomings, e.g. short lifetime, inefficiency and contains several hazardous substances, etc. As LED was invented, it was applied to image display devices quickly, such as TV, because of its high efficiency and long lifetime.

LED has a continuous progress, and provides a bigger luminous flux but is limited as it could not meet the need of high luminance display, what’s more, it is lower than some traditional bulbs, such as high pressure mercury lamps used in the traditional projector. Laser has a good directivity, and laser spot can focus on a mini spot (the smallest is up to several microns). Its luminance increases not only 100~1000 times than that of LED but has a greater promotion than the high pressure mercury lamps. However, due its high cost, lower photoelectric conversion rate and lower reliability that limits the laser’s application in the display field.

Now how about ALPD? This technique retains the high luminance advantage of traditional laser, while adopting the basic technology that integrate fluorescent materials into blue light like LED, with the creatively addition of the remote rotating fluorescent device. Thus that resolves the problem of product extinction along with the stimulation of high density laser, still keeps a high conversion rate. It uses the fluorescent materials of GaN blue laser, YAG and nitrides, maintaining the advantages of LED with high reliability and long lifetime.

It is an overthrow to the new light source, and a breakthrough in lighting technology history.

In 2016, Appotronics has the consumer level portable laser projector named Xiaoming M1 and S1, with brightness up to ANSI 700~980lm, surpassing all the other available market products!

Xiaoming M1 and S1 Now Appotronics has become a dynamic company that develops and manufactures high performance solid-state laser light sources for consumers, industrial and medical applications. Truely a Hidden Unicorn Company in Laser Projector Era, like DJI in Quadcopter Drone and Huawei in Telecom area.