The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 12, 2002
Filed:
Jul. 10, 2000
William P. Robinson, Thousand Oaks, CA (US);
Robert Mark Boysel, Thousand Oaks, CA (US);
MEMSolutions, Inc., Westlake Village, CA (US);
Abstract
A compact, high resolution, bright and long life modulator for projection displays, mates a field emission array (FEA) with a deformable light valve modulator (DLVM) of reflective operation in a thin vacuum package. The DLVM includes a continuous film mirror layer formed on or between one or more deformable layers on a transparent substrate. The field emitters (at least one per pixel) are driven to deliver primary electrons that strike and deposit a charge that produces electrostatic forces that locally deform the continuous film mirror layer. Because the mirror layer is a continuous film, i.e. not pixelated, the modulator resolution is limited only by the addressing resolution of the FEA. Mating the FEA and DLVM technologies also reduces the drive voltage requirements associated with typical FEA driven phosphor displays and scanned beam DLVMs thus improving their performance and extending the lifetime of each.