Sep 23 2008
Laser Energetics, Inc. announced today that the Company has completed the acquisition of a strategic light transmitter technology. The technology, which is referred to as TRT, has a superior way of transmitting and diffusing light which is utilized in consumer products, ranging from mobile phones, and PDA's to computer screens, as well as signage applications.
The recently acquired TRT technology took many years and over fifty million dollars to develop (development started formerly at Allied Signal Corporation (now Honeywell International) under their micro optic devices technology development program) which was purchased by LEI and consists of several PCT patents pending.
Dr. John Magno, one of the inventors of the TRT and now Vice President of Research & Development at Laser Energetics, stated, "TRT (Totally Reflecting Transmitter) is a new optical film which couples light more efficiently by redirecting light from a source and/or LGP (light guide plate). TRT's many benefits consist of brightness enhancement of the display, longer battery life because of improved transmission of light through the film, and reduction of costs in the manufacturing process of LCD's."
Magno lead his team, to the advancement of this technology by producing parallel optical microstructures on an optical film to couple the light from a waveguide via these microstructures which improved total light transmission by 30%, thus improving overall efficiency of the display. This improvement leads to longer battery lifetime and greatly reduces the cost to manufacture the display. As an example, the TRT can be used to replace the present brightness enhancement and diffuser films found in all mobile phones and most PDA's.
Robert D. Battis, Founder and CEO of Laser Energetics, stated, "The cost to manufacture the TRT is under $0.10, versus multiple films costing over $1.00. The cost of assembling the TRT film into a mobile phone is also reduced because of the reduction of many films currently found in a mobile phone, to a single TRT film."
Battis further commented, "TRT" is Better-Faster-and Cheaper than the current utilized technology. The applications of the TRT technology for light transmission are breath taking. Global mobile phone giant Nokia predicts the global handset market will grow 10% in 2008 to 1.1 billion units. Samsung Electronics, the world's No. 2 handset maker, recently forecasted the market to 1.28 billion units. In the annual meeting of investors held in Amsterdam, Nokia executives projected that industry wide mobile device volume growth in 2008 will be above 15% in Asia-Pacific, China and Middle East and Africa but below 10% in North America, Europe and Latin America. Nokia also said the four billion mobile subscriptions mark now is expected to be reached in 2009, rather than in 2010 as previously forecast. Keeping this in mind, if TRT for mobile phones with its superior qualities is utilized in only 10% of the market for over 1 billion mobile phones, this equates to over $100 million is sales with a 90% gross margin. This does not include other consumer devices such as PDA's, digital cameras, digital video recorders, GPS systems, signage and larger screen displays. We look forward to announcing some very significant sales of TRT products in the near future."