IMOD TECHNOLOGY

B.Padmasri

IV B.Tech, ECE

S.V.College of Engineering, Tirupati

E-Mail: bpadmasri91@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: 1. INTRODUCTION:
Todays mobile devices are a far cry from
Wireless communications are an
the devices of 20 or even 5 years ago. Gone
essential and continuously expanding part of
are the days of carrying a separate camera,
modern life. Smart phones presents a
phone, music player and PDA todays
number of challenging requirements on the
mobile devices range from cell phones to
display module, such as low power
smart phones to PC tablets and each
consumption, video quality speed, and
incorporates these functions into one
viewability in a broad range of lighting
multipurpose device for its respective
conditions. As clear as an image on paper,
market segment. As computer technology
IMOD displays can be viewed in any
and multimedia converge, the industry has
lighting condition including direct sunlight.
witnessed a dramatic change in how
Two to three times as bright as other
consumers view their mobile devices.
technology. The IMOD displays minimize
Todays indispensable tools bring users
eye strain, and their wide viewing cones are
information and entertainment. But as
free of the inversion effects that plague
functionality increases and consumers use
polarization-based displays. Qualcomms
their devices for more than just making and
new media FLO technology will enable user
receiving calls or sending and receiving
to watch high performance video on portable
email, consumers demand more including
device and applications such as this need a
extended battery life and superior
display offering superior viewability and
viewability in all environmental conditions
less power consumption.
in short, a convergent device. The key to
such improvements is the display.
Todays liquid-crystal displays (LCDs)
consume significant power, suffer from poor
viewability in direct sunlight and do not
offer convergent capabilities.
Electrophoretic display, found primarily in
e-readers, offer low power, for reading at
least, and outdoor viewability, but struggle
with color and refresh rates. A revolutionary
display technology, however, makes all of
this possible.
Interferometric Modulator (IMOD)
technology is the revolutionary technology
found in Qualcomms mirasol displays.
Based upon micro-electro-mechanical
systems. The Interferometric Modulator
(IMOD) is an electrically switched light
modulator comprising a micro-machined
cavity that is switched on and off using
driver ICs similar to those used to address
LCDs. An IMOD based reflective flat panel
display can comprise hundreds of thousands
of individually addressable IMOD elements.
IMOD displays represent one of the largest
examples of a micro electro mechanical
systems (MEMS) based device. In one state
an IMOD reflects light at a specific
wavelength and gives pure, bright colors
while in a second state it absorbs incident
light and appears black to the viewer.
2. MOBILE DISPLAY
TECHNOLOGIES:
Ink and paper are arguably the de facto
standard for information display. Developed
over 5,000 years ago. Display technologies,
on the other hand, are relatively new. The
CRT was developed less than 100 years ago
and the increasingly popular flat-panel
display less than 40 years ago. For some
time now, engineers have been working to
create a display technology capable of
providing a paper-like reading experience,
not only with regards to superior
viewability, but also with respect to cost,
power and ease of manufacture. Display
technologies such as backlit LCDs,
reflective LCDs, electroluminescent (EL)
displays, organic light-emitting diodes
(OLED) and electrophoretic displays (EPD)
were all steps in this direction. Qualcomms
mirasol displays, based on industry-proven
MEMS technology, promise to take the
quest for paper-like displays to a new level.
A wide variety of display
technologies are aiming to capture the key
characteristics of ink and paper. In this
section we will compare them, with
particular emphasis on energy consumption
and readability.
2.1 Emissive/Tran missive Displays material on top of the reflective substrate so
as to modulate the ambient light reflecting
Displays are classified as one of three types:
off the reflective substrate. Since there is no
emissive/transmissive, reflective or
backlight in reflective displays, they
transflective. A transmissive LCD consists
consume substantially less power than
of two transmissive substrates between
emissive displays. However, since the
which the liquid-crystal material resides. By
material providing modulation is liquid-
placing a backlight underneath one of the
crystal, the majority of these types of
substrates and by applying a voltage to the
displays must constantly be refreshed or the
liquid-crystal material the light reaching the
displayed image will be lost. So far, most
observer can be modulated so as to make the
portable devices employing reflective
display pixel appear bright or dark. A
displays are the continuous refresh type.
display can also directly emit light, as in the
case of an OLED display, whose active 2.3 Transflective Displays:
display material emits light. In the case of an
Transflective displays are a hybrid of
LCD, a constant source of power is required
emissive and reflective display technologies.
to both modulate the liquid-crystal material
Transflective displays were engineered to
and to power the backlight. An LCD
overcome the shortcomings of emissive
requires constant refreshing at least sixty
displays, namely the backlights high power
times per second in order to prevent the
consumption, and the shortcomings of
liquid-crystal material from transitioning to
reflective displays, such as poor image
a different modulation state, resulting in
quality at low ambient light levels.
image degradation or flicker. Such is also
Transflective displays employ a partially
the case with OLED and EPD constant
transmissive mirror as the secondary
power must be provided to the light-emitting
substrate, as well as a traditional backlight.
materials in order to prevent screen flicker.
In low light situations, the device operates as
2.2 Reflective display: a transmissive display, employing the
backlight. In high ambient light conditions,
In a reflective display, one of the substrates
the backlight turns off and the display
found in a transmissive display is replaced
functions as a reflective display.
with a reflective substrate. Reflective
displays usually employ liquid-crystal
A transflective display is a compromise and
its image quality is generally subpar. In
sunlight they are not as bright as purely
reflective displays, while indoors they are
not as bright as emissive
Regardless, they offer a compromise for
applications where a wide variety of lighting
conditions are seen and transflective
displays are widely used in the portable
device market.
3. BASIC STRUCTURE OF IMOD
PIXEL
Fig 1: Basic Structure of an IMOD Pixel
Figure 1 illustrates the
structure of an IMOD pixel. The pixel
consists of a glass substrate which is coated
with thin films. Beneath the glass is a
reflective conductive membrane which is
separated from the glass by a thin air gap.
When a voltage is applied to the membrane
and the thin films on the glass, the
membrane experiences electrostatic
attraction and is drawn towards the glass.
This state is called the collapsed state and
displays. the pixel appears black as the light entering
is shifted to the UV spectrum. The
application of a lower voltage level returns
the membrane to the original position, called
the open state. In this state the pixel appears
bright and colored. This color is generated
by interference of light, a process which is
much more efficient than using color filters.
The display constructed of IMOD
pixels in Figure 1 will be bichrome that is, it
can display any two colors. Full-color
versions of IMOD displays, as shown in
Figure 8, will be brought to market after the
initial bichrome displays. They will use the
same operating principle as bichrome
displays, but will consist of grids of red,
green and blue color sub pixels that together
can produce full color using spatial
dithering. Spatial dithering divides a given
sub pixel into many smaller addressable
basic elements, and drives the individual elements
separately in order to obtain gray levels
 At the most basic level, a mirasol display is
an optically resonant cavity similar to a
Fabry-Perot etalon. The device consists of a
self-supporting deformable reflective
membrane and a thin-film stack (each of
which acts as one mirror of an optically
resonant cavity), both residing on a
transparent substrate.

Fig 2: mirasol Display Colour Pixel

Structure

The low power advantage of the

mirasol display is due to the mechanical
structure of the IMOD pixel.
A mirasol display can be
manufactured on current FPD manufacturing
lines. In fact, it actually can use a subset of
LCD manufacturing due to its simpler
structure. The IMOD element of a mirasol
display provides functionalities that would
require three separate elements in a LCD,
Each of which require multiple processing
steps. First, the modulation is accomplished
via the Movable membrane rather than the
liquid crystal. Second, the colour is
generated using the air Gap rather than Figure 3. IMOD Structure Showing

colour filters. Light Reflecting off the Thin-film Stack and

Mirror Interfering to Produce Color

4. WORKING PRINCIPLE: When ambient light hits the structure, it is

reflected both off the top of the thin-film
stack and off the reflective membrane.
Depending on the height of the optical
cavity, light of certain wavelengths
reflecting off the membrane will be slightly
out of phase with the light reflecting off the
thin-film structure. Based on the phase
difference, some wavelengths will
constructively interfere, while others will
destructively interfere as shown in Figure 3.
As illustrated, the red wavelengths have a
phase difference which leads to constructive
interference, while the green and blue
wavelengths have a phase difference which
leads to destructive interference. As a result,
the human eye will perceive a red color, as
certain wavelengths will be amplified with
respect to others. Color generation via
interference is much more efficient in its use
of light compared to traditional color filters
and polarizers, which work on the principle
of absorption and waste much of the light
entering the display.
continually refresh, such as LCDs. The
bistability of mirasol displays comes from
the inherent hysteresis derived from the
technologys electro-mechanical properties.
More specifically, it derives from an
inherent imbalance between the linear
restorative forces of the mechanical
membrane and the non-linear forces of the
applied electric field. As shown in Figure 4,
the resulting electro-opto-mechanical
behavior is hysteretic in nature and provides
a built-in memory effect similar to the
thin-film transistor (TFT) element in an
active-matrix display.

4.1 Bistability
One of the key advantages of the
mirasol displays design is its bistable
nature, which allows for near-zero power
usage in situations where the display image
is unchanged. This means that mirasol
displays benefit from considerable power
Figure 4. Hysteresis Effect in an IMOD
savings, especially compared to displays that
Pixel
 The membrane is held in the open extent that the display light emission is
state by applying a voltage Vbias. By washed out.
applying a short write voltage pulse, the
It should be noted that in very dark
membrane will collapse and stay in that state
environments all displays (including
as the voltage returns to Vbias levels. In
newsprint) will need supplemental lighting,
order to return to the open state, a short
and the mirasol display, because of its high
negative unwrite pulse (Vunwrite) is
reflectivity, utilizes a very low power front
applied, causing the membrane to snap back
light in extremely dim conditions. Figure 5
into the open state.
clearly illustrates the consistent viewing
5. SUNLIGHT VIEWABILITY-THE quality that would be available from a
ULTIMATE MEASURE OF A mirasol display versus the viewing quality
DISPLAY. expected from a TFTLCD. The results are
qualitatively clear to the viewer, but they
The mirasol displays remarkable
can be expressed quantitatively by the
abilities to conserve energy, enable new
decreasing JND count indicated below the
applications, provide freedom to industrial
TFTLCD images and the constant JND
designers, and enhance revenue streams
count indicated below the mirasol display
compliment the displays fundamental
images.
ability to be viewed in direct sunlight,
indeed to be consistently viewed in almost
any environment, without degradation of
contrast ratio or color depth.

Emissive displays generate their own

illumination, yet the available light output
consistently obscures in the face of modest
room lighting and is significantly degraded
in bright office lighting. Worse, emissive
displays become washed out in diffuse
sunlight, and are often overpowered in direct
sunlight. Consequently, the viewing quality
of emissive displays deteriorates to the same
 Since visible light wavelengths operate on
the nanometer scale (i.e., 380nm to 780nm),
the deformable IMOD membrane only has
to move a short distance a few hundred
nanometers in order to switch between two
colors. This switching happens extremely
fast, on the order of tens of microseconds.
This switching speed directly translates to a
video rate-capable display with no motion-
blur effects. Traditional STN- or cholesteric-
based passive matrix displays have
switching speeds as slow as tens or hundreds
figure 5: Consistent viewing quality of
of milliseconds. An IMOD elements
mirasol display (real world)
switching time is 1000 times faster than
JND, or just noticeable difference, is a traditional displays. In addition, mirasol
recognized method of expressing the displays switching speed is maintained
number of separately discernable image across a wide temperature range, unlike
levels available to the viewer. One can organic liquid-crystal-based displays, whose
associate the ability to discern small levels switching speeds decrease as temperatures
of difference in an image with perceiving go into low environmental ranges.
the image as having high quality.
6.2 Readability
Conversely, a decrease in JND count
represents a decrease in the quality level of Humans view the world by sensing
the viewed image. Figure 5 illustrates the the light reflecting from various surfaces.
mirasol displays ability to deliver consistent As a result, a reflected image from a
viewing quality across all levels of newspaper is more appealing and easier to
illumination. view for the human eye, compared to a
backlit image. Based on human perception,
6. KEY ATTRIBUTES
there are two critical factors which
6.1 Speed determine readability: luminance and
contrast.
 Luminance is the amount of light only does this promising technology offer
that reaches the human eye. In the case of a the brightness and power consumption
reflective display, it is the amount of required tomeet the demands of
ambient light that is reflected from the manufacturers and consumers alike, it also
display, rather than absorbed. The key takes advantage of existing LCD
metric is the reflectivity of the displays manufacturing processes and benefits from
white state, which is measured by the unique functionalities of MEMS
comparing it to the reflectivity of a standard structures. At the same time, IMOD
white source. A white sheet of paper technology provides system designers the
measures between 70 and 90 percent flexibility they require to differentiate their
reflectivity, and a newspaper measures on products based on image quality, power
the order of 60 percent reflectivity. consumption, and performance. Unlike other
display entrants, it has the potential to play a
Contrast is the ratio of the displays
role in a more-diverse array of display
white state reflectivity to its dark state. This
market segments than its competitors. These
metric dictates whether or not the human
capabilities may one day enable it to
eye will be able to perceive transitions
empower a uniquely new generation of
between the dark and light areas on the
FPDs for mobile applications.
display, which translates to spatial detail. If
the contrast is too low, the display will
appear washed out and the user will have
8. ADVANTAGES:
difficulty perceiving image details. A high Significant Power Savings.
contrast ratio makes the image look sharper A Display for All Conditions.
True-to-Life Image Quality.
and improves readability. For reference, a
Robust FunctionalityEnhanced
newspaper has a contrast ratio of
Durability.
approximately 4:1. Industry Compatibility.
Easy IntegrationLow Risk
7. CONCLUSION:
Adoption.
Currently, LCDs are the technology of
9. REFERENCES:
choice for mobile applications. However, www.mirasoldisplays.com/benefits/t
with the emergence of IMOD technology, a echnology.
new alter-native will soon be available. Not
 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interferometri
c_modulator_display
http://www.qualcomm.com/media/do
cuments/mirasol-displays-imod-
technology-overview.