Texas Instruments Corporation

Other

Richard O Gale

Simon Joshua Jacobs

Walter Marvin Duncan

Michael Richard Douglass

Rodney Dean Miller

Harold R Garner

Edward Carl Fisher

Mark L Burton

Ronald A Jascott

Harian Paul Cleveland

A process for protecting a MEMS device used in a UV illuminated application from damage due to a photochemical activation between the UV flux and package gas constituents, formed from the out-gassing of various lubricants and passivants put in the device package to prevent sticking of the MEMS device's moving parts. This process coats the exposed surfaces of the MEMS device and package's optical window surfaces with a metal-halide film to eliminate this photochemical activation and therefore significantly extend the reliability and lifetime of the MEMS device.

MEMS device with controlled gas space chemistry

An optical correlator ( ) that uses a spatial light modulator ( ) to illuminate a pattern of on and off pixels into a length of an optical fiber ( ). The spatial light modulator ( ) is optically coupled to the length of fiber ( ) so that the illumination enters the fiber along that length. The optical fiber ( ) also carries light representing a bitstream of data. At the optical fiber, the illumination from the spatial light modulator interacts with the illumination of the optical bitstream. A detector ( ) is optically coupled to the same length of fiber ( ) and detects the resulting optical response to determine if a correlation exists.

Optical correlator using spatial light modulator illumination

A method of passivating a hermetically sealed micromechanical device (14) with a passivant (100). A predetermined quantity of the passivant (100) is placed within the cavity (54) of a lid (42) after the lid and package base (46) have been activated. Thereafter, by heating the package (10) including the passivant, the passivant will sublime within the hermetically sealed package (10) to provide a monolayer of passivant across the active surfaces of the micromechanical die (14). An improved hermetic seal is achieved since the passivant is sublimed after the laser weld process. In addition, the effectiveness of the passivation process is improved since the passivation is performed after the package is sealed, without the risk of any impurities entering into the package to degrade the effectiveness of the passivation.

Method of passivating a micromechanical device within a hermetic package

A DMD spatial light modulator (20) having an improved reset waveform (80) that improves the electrostatic control over the DMD mirrors (30) during switching states (T3). An intermediate bias level is provided to the yoke (32) and mirror (30) during the mirror reset cycle (T3) which is sufficient to maintain a voltage differential between the mirror/yoke and the address electrodes (26,28,50,52) to dynamically park the mirror during a same-state transition, but which voltage differential is insufficient to overcome the hinge restoration forces during an opposite-state transition such that the mirror releases toward the neutral position and can be captured in the other state upon reapplication of the bias voltage. The transition bias level is maintained for a sufficient time period (T3) to allow the mirror/yoke to release from the landing pads (82) a sufficient distance toward the neutral position. The operating reliability of the device is improved by preventing incident light during same-state mirror transitions from escaping into the display aperture, without impeding the crossover of the mirror during opposite-state mirror transitions. Greater mirror-to-mirror variations can be tolerated without falling outside the mirror arrays acceptable timing operating parameters.

Multiple bias level reset waveform for enhanced DMD control

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Allen, TX, United States of America

Richard O Gale