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US 6,646,778 B2Granted
Grating light valve with encapsulated dampening gas
AssigneeSilicon Light Machines Corporation
InventorsChris Gudeman, James Gill Shook
Life of this patent
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AssigneeSilicon Light Machines Corporation
InventorsChris Gudeman, James Gill Shook
Estimating the term…
An optical MEM device is encapsulated with a dampening gas to reduce oscillatory vibrations of movable parts during the operation of the device. Preferably, the dampening gas comprises one or more noble gases, such as neon and/or krypton with a partial pressure in a range of 50 to 100% of the total dampening gas pressure. In further embodiments, the dampening gas comprises a mixture of one or more noble gases and an inert carrier gas, such as nitrogen. Preferably, the optical MEM device is sealed within a die with a dampening gas pressure between 0.5 to 3.0 atmospheres at 20 degree Celsius. The current invention is particularly useful for reducing oscillatory vibrations of optical MEM devices having a plurality of movable ribbon structures configured to modulate light with one or more wavelengths in the near infrared (800 to 4000 nanometers) and which operate at high switching rates (4-40 Volts/nano second) and at high switching frequencies (1 kHz and greater).
An apparatus comprising a grating light valve for modulating a light source having wavelength λ, wherein the grating light valve is encapsulated with a dampening gas environment and comprises a plurality of spatially arranged movable ribbons with reflective top surfaces and reflective substrate surfaces and wherein the dampening gas environment comprising a noble group VIII element for reducing oscillatory vibrations of the movable ribbons as the movable ribbons are switched between the conditions for constructive and destructive interference.
A system comprising an array of grating light valves encapsulated within a dampening gas environment comprising Neon or Krypton gas with a partial pressure in a range 0.5 to 3 atmospheres at 20 degrees Celsius.
A method for making a grating light valve comprising the step of:
An optical MEM device encapsulated within a die with a dampening gas comprising a noble gas environment with a pressure of 0.5 or more at 20 degrees Celsius, the device comprising an array of ribbon elements spatially arranged over a substrate, wherein the ribbons have reflective top surfaces and wherein a portions of the ribbons are configured to move to modulate light reflected from the reflective top surfaces.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.