Spatial light modulators
AssigneeTexas Instruments Incorporated
InventorsNoah Alan Robb, Harsh Dinesh Jhaveri, Priyankar Mathuria
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Abstract
In a described example, a device includes: a semiconductor substrate; a memory array on the semiconductor substrate, the memory array comprising rows and columns of memory cells in a Manhattan pattern, the memory cells having a pitch in a direction along the columns; and an array of micromirrors in a diamond pattern over the memory cells, the micromirrors coupled to corresponding memory cells, the micromirrors having a diagonal pitch length in the direction along the columns that is between 1.8 times the pitch and 2.2 times the pitch.
Claims20
A system, comprising:
- an illumination source configured to produce light;
- and
- a digital micromirror device (DMD) optically coupled to the illumination source, the DMD configured to receive the light and to modulate the light, the DMD comprising:
- a semiconductor substrate;
- an array of memory cells in rows and columns on the semiconductor substrate, the rows and columns intersecting at normal angles, the memory cells coupled to word lines along the rows, pairs of word lines of for corresponding pairs of rows of the memory cells coupled to form shared word lines;
- and
- an array of micromirrors overlaying the array of memory cells, the micromirrors in a diamond pattern, the micromirrors being square, and the micromirrors having a first diagonal aligned with the rows and a second diagonal aligned with the columns, the micromirrors overlaying respective memory cells, a number of micromirrors along a row of memory cells being less than a number of memory cells along the row.
A device, comprising:
- a semiconductor substrate;
- a memory array on the semiconductor substrate, the memory array comprising rows and columns of memory cells in a Manhattan pattern, the memory cells having a pitch in a direction along the columns;
- and
- an array of micromirrors in a diamond pattern over the memory cells, the micromirrors coupled to corresponding memory cells, the micromirrors having a diagonal pitch length in the direction along the columns that greater than the pitch of the memory cells.
A method, comprising:
- receiving, by a row driver circuit, a row select signal for either a first row of memory cells or for a second row of memory cells, the second row adjacent to the first row;
- outputting, by the row driver circuit, a word signal on a shared word line in response to receiving the row select signal, the shared word line coupled to the first row of memory cells and to the second row of memory cells;
- storing data in the memory cells in the first row of memory cells and in the second row of memory cells responsive to the word signal on the shared word line;
- and
- using the data stored in the memory cells, controlling micromirrors of a digital micromirror device (DMD), the micromirrors coupled to corresponding memory cells in the first row of memory cells or in the second row of memory cells, wherein a subset of the memory cells are coupled to corresponding micromirrors.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.