Luminus Devices Founder and Chief Technology Officer Alexei Erchak (Part 5)

SM: Where were you doing your manufacturing?

AE: We were able to support the type of volumes that Samsung needed for that initial launch in Massachusetts. We can do probably 50,000 parts per month in Massachusetts. In preparation for that market taking off, we had also established contract manufacturers in Asia and taught them the process so we could ramp up to higher volumes.

SM: So what happened from there on?

AE: The LCD market continued to drive prices down and cut them in half again. Now the whole value proposition of DLP television was in question. They are large screen but they are not flat. They are about 15 inches wide instead of 6 inches, and you do not hang them on the wall. They no longer had a price advantage over LCD. The prediction of 20 million units sold for 2008 turned into about 500,000.

SM: That sounds like a complete disaster!

AE: There was certainly a lot of stress about that, although sometimes that kind of stress can make you stronger as a company.

SM: What was your reaction?

AE: Throughout that entire process, we became a manufacturing company with a quality product. We have quadrupled our LED brightness, so all of a sudden we started looking at not only rear-projection but all projection applications. This included front-projection applications. The same problem existed there – the lamp needed to be replaced with a reliable light source that provided better colors, instant on and no mercury.

Our brightness has opened up many front-projection applications. Texas Instruments recently announced some of the new applications for these LEDs for front projection. These are home theater applications.

SM: What do you quantify as home theater?

AE: These are front-projection devices. These are going to be high-end systems that many people will build into their houses. Often they will have the projector built into the ceiling and use it in a media room to watch movies.

SM: What is the market for front projection, and what segments of it are you going after?

AE: There are a couple of different areas. One is home theater. Another is pocket projectors, a new category that has been enabled by our technology. These are much smaller form projectors than you are used to seeing with business projections. You can throw this projector into your briefcase, pull it out, and turn it on instantly. It is all built on our LED technology. Now people are talking about using the technology for pico projectors. These are small projection modules that could one day be embedded inside an iPod or cell phone.

This segment is part 5 in the series : Luminus Devices Founder and Chief Technology Officer Alexei Erchak
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