Technology Under the Hood of the EB-Z10000U Series of High-Lumen Projectors
Epson's comprehensive lineup of projectors have made it the global projector market share leader since 2001*. We started out focusing primarily on the general office and home markets, but in recent years have sought to respond to a broader range of needs by expanding our lineup to include products for the education market as well as for large venues and commercial applications. There has been a need in these markets for bright projectors that are capable of producing larger images. Epson responded by developing the EB-Z10000U series of high-lumen projectors.
The Epson lineup already had 7,000-lumen WUXGA (1920 x 1200 resolution) projectors and 10,000-lumen XGA (1024 x 768 resolution) projectors, but the models in the EB-Z10000U series provide 10,000 lumens of brightness along with WUXGA resolution, thus meeting market demand for projectors with even higher performance. The following affords a glimpse into some of the technology that allowed us to achieve both high resolution at high brightness.
Newly Developed 1.03" HTPS Panels
At the heart of Epson's projectors are the high-temperature polysilicon thin-film transistor panels (HTPS panels) developed by Epson. Light from a lamp passes through the three HTPS panels and converges on a screen to form an image. The resolution of the image is determined by the number of pixels on the panels. HTPS panels have a light-blocking layer called a black matrix that surrounds each of the individual picture elements (pixels) on the panel. Given panels of equal size but different pixel counts, the panel with more pixels will be darker because the black matrix will occupy a proportionately larger area. In other words, the more pixels you squeeze onto a panel, the less light the panel will transmit.
This tradeoff between pixel count and brightness makes it difficult to increase panel resolution while maintaining brightness unless you increase the size of the panel. Epson was unable to reach 10,000 lumens of brightness on the 0.94-inch WUXGA panels we had been using. Epson's solution was to develop a new 1.03-inch HTPS panel. Since the area occupied by the black matrix is relatively smaller on the larger panels, the light usage efficiency was increased by about 10%, reaching a brightness of 10,000 lumens. Epson was able to achieve this because we have control over the entire design and manufacturing process. We manufacture the core devices used in the products and assemble the finished products ourselves allowing us to implement improvements where needed to make the strongest products possible.
Hybrid cooling system
Projectors have to be cooled on the inside because the intense light produced by the lamps generate heat. Ordinary projectors are cooled with a fan, but the projectors in the EB-Z10000U series needed a hybrid air-and-liquid cooling system to handle the heat generated by their high-output lamps. Epson has had models in the past that used a hybrid cooling system, but the system used in this series is even more powerful. Cooling efficiency was optimized by increasing the number of peltier elements (semiconductor devices used for cooling) in the cooling system from one to two and by increasing the size of the heat sink to raise the heat dissipation capacity. The improved performance of the liquid cooling system allowed us to reduce the speed of the cooling fan and reduce fan noise, thus adding value.
Going forward, Epson is committed to further innovative developments that will exceed the expectations of customers around the world.
* Largest unit share of the market for 500-lumen and higher projectors. (Source: Futuresource Consulting Limited, 2001-2013)
