Jan 5 2016
Himax Technologies, Inc., a leading supplier and fabless manufacturer of display drivers and other semiconductor products, today announced its Wafer Level Optics laser diode collimator with integrated Diffractive Optical Element has been integrated into laser projectors for next-generation applications.
Himax has significantly reduced the size of laser projectors, enabling the integration of technologies, such as active 3D scanners, into mobile devices, automobiles, augmented and virtual reality devices, and IoT applications.
Himax's WLO creates a unique hybrid optical system to combine the collimator and the DOE into a height profile of less than two millimeters. Himax's component is then stacked on top of a laser diode to reduce the overall height of a coded laser projector assembly to five millimeters. The WLO laser collimator provides high alignment accuracy and both the collimator and DOE can achieve system and algorithm customization.
“We have supplied WLO in high volumes to leading camera module integrators for top tier smartphone and camera OEMs since 2009," began Jordan Wu, President and CEO of Himax Technologies. "We are currently collaborating with several major OEMs' product developments using our WLO as our expertise in WLO design and manufacturing enables significant size and cost reduction of coded laser projectors. For example, in an active sensing 3D camera projector, our technology can reduce the size of the incumbent laser projector module by a factor of 9, actually making it smaller than conventional camera modules. This breakthrough allows our WLO collimator to be easily integrated into next-generation smartphones, tablets, automobiles, wearable devices, IoT applications, consumer electronics accessories and several other products to enable new applications in the consumer, medical, and industrial marketplaces."
The WLO laser collimator and DOE will be manufactured by Himax’s Wafer Optics production facility in Taiwan. The first production run for 3D camera applications is scheduled for delivery and sampling by Himax's partners and select customers in the first quarter of 2016.