LCoS or Liquid Crystal on Silicon is the least well know fixed pixel technology. It is similar to LCD because it uses a liquid crystal layer to filter light but unlike LCD, the crystals are applied to a silicon chip rather than sandwiched between glass.

JVC whose HD-52Z575 model is shown here is perhaps the most well known LCoS set maker, however, it calls its version of LCoS, D-ILA which stands for Direct-drive Image Light Amplifier.

LCoS is also similar to Digital Light Processing (DLP) because the light is reflected off the chip through a colour wheel or prism towards a screen. The primary difference between LCoS and DLP at this time is LCoS' higher resolution which many say leads to an smoother picture and almost no screen door effect.

Advantages

• Much lighter and thinner than CRT RPTV
• Higher resolutions than DLP or LCD projectors

Disadvantages

• Extremely expensive
• Poor black levels