are 445 nm lasers the "new big thing"?

I've been pretty busy with my graduate classes over the last few months, so I haven't been very active on any laser forums lately. Anyways, I just came back to find that many users are talking about 445 nm lasers. Supposedly, those lasers can go up to 1 watt.

However, I don't recall seeing anything about 445 nm lasers when I stopped by this forum two weeks ago. It seems that they have popped up out of nowhere. When did those lasers first start appearing? Anyone want to fill me in?

They were found in a Casio | XJ-A140 Green Slim Projector XJ-A140 ... there is 24 of them per that projector..

They still alive at over 1Amps. and pushes over 1W


Cost 50$ instead of 3k on ebay

^yup, they are a relatively new development here but they have caught quite some attention.

They came to the forum at around 3K, then the next day $500 then on the 3rd or 4th day someone found a projector for $600 which houses 24 of the 445nm 1 Watt diodes.

Then Wickedlasers jumped on the band wagon of making the lasers within a few days and attracted attention from places like engadget and BOOM sales start exploding.

445nm diodes have been around for about 3 years in lab modules. Only over the last few months has display technology that uses them become mainstream. That, coupled with the fact that the DLP projector referred to as the source of these specific diodes contains 24 of them is the reason they're suddenly so prevalent here.

Yeah they basically popped out of nowhere, for us at least. It's funny seeing a bunch of old members here coming back and posting again when they hear about the 445nm hype.

Crawling back indeed