Texas Instruments Corporation

Robert E Meier

James D Huffman

Richard Lee Knipe

Duane E Carter

Rodney Dean Miller

Brian L Ray

An improved DMD type spatial light modulator having an array of pixels ( ). The pixels ( ) are of the &ldquo;hidden hinge&rdquo; design, each pixel having a mirror ( ) supported over a hinged yoke ( ). Addressing electrodes ( ) on an underlying metallization layer and addressing electrodes ( ) at the yoke level provide electrostatic forces that cause the mirrors to tilt and then to return to their flat state. The pixels ( ) are designed to provide increased clearance between the leading edge of the yoke ( ) and the underlying metallization layer when the mirrors ( ) are tilted. Various features of the improved pixel ( ) also improve the contrast ratio of images generated by the DMD.

Hidden hinge digital micromirror device with improved manufacturing yield and improved contrast ratio

An improved micromechanical device comprising a substrate (,), a deflectable member (,) suspended over the substrate (,), at least one spring-ring (,) supported above the substrate (,); and at least one address electrode (,) spaced apart from substrate (,). The spring-ring (,) resists deflection of the deflectable member (,) when the deflectable member (,) deflects to contact the spring-ring (,). By moving the address electrode (,) off the substrate level, the micromirror is much more immune to particle-caused short circuits, and a planer surface on which to fabricate the mirror (,) is provided without the need to utilize an inverse spacer layer.

High yield spring-ring micromirror

An improved micromechanical device comprising a substrate (104), a rigid deflectable member (302, 314, 326) suspended over the substrate, and at least one spring (328) supported above the substrate and spaced apart from the rigid deflectable member. The spring resists deflection of the rigid deflectable member when the rigid deflectable member deflects to contact the spring. The improved micromechanical device is constructed by fabricating at least one support structure (116) on a substrate, fabricating at least one spring spaced apart from the substrate and supported by at least one of the support structures, and fabricating a deflectable member spaced apart from both the substrate and spring, and supported by at least one of the support structures. The improved micromechanical device is useful in a projection display system in which a micromirror device selectively reflects incident light, as directed by a controller electrically connected to the micromirror device, and the selectively reflected light is focused onto an image plane. The micromirror device is comprised an array of micromirror elements, each comprised of: a substrate, a spring supported by the substrate, and a deflectable rigid member supported by the substrate and spaced apart from the spring. The deflectable rigid member including a mirror to deflect toward the spring, which resists the deflection of the deflectable rigid member.

Spring-ring micromechanical device

A micromirror array fabricated on a semiconductor substrate 708. The micromirrors in the micromirror array logically divided into an interior active region 704 which selectively modulates light striking the mirrors in the interior active region 704, and an exterior border region 702 for producing a dark border around the image produced by the interior active region 704. A gap between each mirror allows adjacent mirrors to rotate. The gap 712 between mirrors in the interior active region 704 of the array is larger than the gap 710 between at least some of the mirrors in the exterior border region 702. The smaller gap 710 in the exterior region 702 is enabled by restricting mirrors in the exterior region 702 to a single direction of rotation.

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Dallas, TX, United States of America

Robert E Meier