SCRAM Technologies

By Mark Fihn November 2000

One of the best-kept secrets in this industry is the development of what SCRAM Technologies calls SCRAMscreens. After several years of near-silence about their poly-planar-optic display technology, SCRAM recently showed me the latest iteration of this impressively simple screen concept.

The proto-type I saw was a 50" diagonal using an SXGA projector. The contrast, color saturation, and viewing angles were better than any other TV image I've seen on a large screen. Reference designs suggest that a 50" rear projection television will be less than 9" deep, and a smaller 36" version will be only 6" deep. When linked to commercially available projectors, the SCRAMscreen technology clearly shows off advantages for full-motion/full-color video and computer images. SCRAM President Ray Kwong claims that, "the SCRAMscreen will show off any projected image better than any other screen technology we know of". The proto-types I saw were handmade using a simple lamination process. Even so, the clarity of the image and the quality of the rendering on the SCRAMscreen was startling. More impressive was the fact that the demonstration model I saw was hastily assembled. A projector set up behind a screen was resting on a 2" x 4" piece of wood. With the diffuser sheet barely adhered to the polished plastic layers, two men struggled to keep the raw screen at a proper angle to the projector. Even under such haphazard conditions, I had to struggle to draw my eye away from the movie that was being demonstrated. And when the images were entirely adequate when switched to computer, although I'd expected readability issues. Once the SCRAM team gets a fully machined screen that is properly mounted and has optimized optics, the SCRAM-screen has the potential to be a breakthrough innovation.

The SCRAMscreen technology consists of layers of optically clear plastic separated by a black cladding material. An optic system compresses an image in the vertical plane, allowing for a very thin image path to be created. The screen then decompresses the image. The primary advantage of the multiple layer screen structure is to produce a screen that, by means of a light-directing film, directs the projected image into rather than onto the screen. Moreover, the black layers of cladding absorb, rather than reflect, ambient light, producing a very high contrast image. Because precision manufacturing can make ultra-thin layers, SCRAM can achieve very high resolutions and can, in fact, over-sample to obviate the criticality of optical alignment of the sheets within the screen and the pixel rows within the projector.

SCRAM Technologies has exclusive rights to commercialize the SCRAMscreen technology, granted from the Brookhaven National Labs, as part of US technology transfer policy.

SCRAM advises that the SCRAMscreen technology has a potentially limitless size capability, practically limited only by transportation factors of large-size subsections. These subsections can be tiled together almost seamlessly to produce large-scale, high-resolution display screens. Possible uses include computer monitors, televisions, corporate boardroom displays, billboards, electronic stadium scoreboards, movie screens, and curved displays. SCRAM is currently seeking business partners to bring the SCRAMscreen technology to market.

Attendees at the DisplaySearch Conference in March 2001will be among the first to see poly-planar optic devices. In addition to speaking publicly for the first time at the Display-Search conference about their SCRAMscreen technology, SCRAM will be exhibiting production-ready models at the conference.
 

SCRAM Technologies, Inc. is a design and engineering company with a significant patent portfolio of IP that includes the SCRAMscreen® and LED Illumination systems. The SCRAMscreen® is a high-contrast rear projection screen with exceptional transmission efficiency and ambient light viewability. SCRAM's LED illuminators and associated components are unique alternative solutions for the projection industry. SCRAM provides creative engineering answers for challenges in the advanced projection display market with light engines, complex optical systems, and our SCRAMscreen® to commercial, consumer and military markets.