E L EC T R O N N I C S & C O M M U N I C A T I O N E N G I N E E R I N G EL CTRONNICS COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

DIGITAL MICROMIRROR DEVICE

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ABSTRACT
The DMD chip is probably the worlds most sophisticated light switch. It contains a rectangular array of up to 1.3 million hinge mounted microscopic mirrors; each of these micro mirrors measures less than 1/5 the width of a human hair, and corresponds to one pixel in a projected image. When a DMD chip is coordinated with a digital video or graphic signal, a light source and projection lens, its mirrors can reflect an old digital image on to a screen or other surface. The DMD and the sophisticated electronics that surround it are what we call DIGITAL LIGHT PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY. A DMD panels micro mirrors are mounted on tiny hinges that enable them to tilt either toward the light source in a DLP projection system or away from it creating a light or dark pixel on the projection surfaces. The DMD is illuminated using mercury arc lamps Digital Light Processing (DLP) is a revolutionary new way to project and display information. Based on the Digital Micromirror Device (DMD) developed by Texas Instruments, DLP creates the final link to display digital visual information. DLP technology is being provided as subsystems or "engines" to market leaders in the consumer, business, and professional segments of the projection display industry. In the same way the compact disc revolutionized the audio industry, DLP will revolutionize video projection. DMD technology is now firmly established in a variety of projection display products, enabling brilliant images through digital witch solutions. Many new DMD applications beyond projection display are emerging, and are being enabled through general use DMD products that are available to developers

INDEX
Page No CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 2 DMD ARCHITECTURE CHAPTER 3 DIGITAL LIGHT TECHNOLOGY 3.1 DIGITAL LIGHT PROCESSING 3.2 ADDING COLOUR 3.3 BINARY PULSE WIDTH MODULATION CHAPTER 4 BROADBAND OPERATION CHAPTER 5 APPLICATIONS 5.1 LITHOGRAPHIC APPLICATIONS 5.2 VIDEO PROCESSING 5.3 MICROSCOPY 5.4 SPECTROSCOPY 5.5 PHOTO FINISHING 5.6 SCIENTIFIC AND MEDICAL APPLICATIOS CHAPTER 6 DMD PERFORMANCE HISTORY AND ROAD MAP CHAPTER 7 PERFORMANCE COMPARISON WITH LCD 15 14 9 9 9 11 12 13 13 8 4 4 6 7 3 1

CHAPTER 8 DMD CONTROLLER CHAPTER 9 THE FUTURE CHAPTER 10 CONCLUSION REFRENCE APPENDIX 18 19 20 17 16

1. INTRODUCTION
The DMD chip is probably the worlds most sophisticated light switch. It contains a rectangular array of up to 1.3 million hinge-mounted microscopic mirrors; each of these micro-mirrors measures less than one-fifth the width of a human hair, and corresponds to one pixel in a projected image.

DMD CHIP Figure 1.1

Dr. Larry Hornbeck of Texas instruments invented DMD chip. For the past six years, Digital Micro-mirror technology has made significant inroads in the projection display market. With products enabling the worlds smallest data and video projectors, HDVT, and digital cinema, DLP technology is extremely powerful and flexible. DMD is a semiconductor based light switch array of thousands of individually addressable, tiltable, mirror pixels. DMD is a success as spatial light modulator for projection applications. The same light switching speed and on-off ratio that have resulted in superior projector performance, along with the capability of operation outside the visible spectrum, make the DMD very attractive for volumetric display holographic data storage and medical imaging. This paper presents an overview of past and future DMD performance in the contest of new DMD applications, cites several examples of emerging fields, and describes the DMD components and tools now available to developers. The device was originally implemented, as an analog scattering array i.e. the mirror movement would be linearly dependent on the device input signal. But this was not effective. Consequently Texas Instruments redeveloped the device
Dept. of Electronics & Communication College of Engg. Kidangoor

to be digital. In this implementation the mirrors have two possible positions, either left facing or right facing. By altering the frequency of the mirror modulations different intensity levels can be produced. Texas Instruments began working on a spatial light modulating technology nearly 25 years ago. Starting as a deformable mirror device in 1977, the technology evolved to be a bi-stable or digital micromiror device in 1987. Over the next decade the DMD technology was perfected and with the necessary support electronics, was commercialized in the form of digital light processing technology in the spring of 1996. As of October 2002, over 1.5 million systems have been shipped in to the projection display market place, making DMD the most widely adopted reflective light modular technology. The DMD is the only volume production device that is both micro-electronic mechanical system (MEMS) and spatial light modulator. It is MEMS because it consists of hundreds of thousands of moving micro-mirrors that are controlled by underlying CMOS electronics. The mirrors are highly reflective and used to modulate light, thus making the DMD an optical MEMS as well as an SLM. LCDs are also widely used SLMs and may be either transmissive or reflective, binary or analog, but do not have the speed, precision, or broad band capability that makes the DMD attractive for many applications.

2. DMD ARCHITECTURE
The DMD is a chip that has anywhere from 800 to more than 1 million tiny mirrors on it, depending on the size of the array. Each 16-m2 mirror (m = millionth of a meter) on a DMD consists of three physical layers and two "air gap" layers. The air gap layers separate the three physical layers and allow the mirror to tilt +10 or -10 degrees. When a voltage is applied to either of the address electrodes, the mirrors can tilt +10 degrees or -10 degrees, representing "on" or "off" in a digital signal. For the most advanced DMD today, the mirrors are made to rotate to either a +12degree or -12degree position depending on the binary state of the SRAM cell that exists below each mirror. The SRAM voltage is applied to the address electrodes, creating an electrostatic attraction. When a voltage pulse is applied to the mirrors, each mirror then either stays in place or quickly rotates to its opposite state according to the SRAM data. Once stabilized, the mirror may be considered electromechanically latched in its desired position, and the state of the SRAM cell may then be changed with out affecting the state of the mirror. Using a typical metal halide or mercury arc lamp as a light source, each tiltable mirror pixel can be moved to reflect light to, or away from, an intended target. In projection systems, brightness and contrast are two primary attributes that impact the quality of the projected image. The DMD has a light modulator efficiency in the range of 65% including mirror reflectivity, fill factor, diffraction efficiency and duty cycle, and enables 1000:1 typical contrast ratio at the system level, or as high as 2000:1 for slower optical systems.

Exploded view of an individual mirror on a DMD Figure: 2.1

3. DIGITAL LIGHT TECHNOLOGY 3.1 DIGITAL LIGHT PROCESSING

DLP technology is a revolutionary display solution that uses an optical semiconductor to manipulate light digitally. It's also a proven and dependable technology preferred by leading electronics companies worldwide, with more than 2 million systems shipped to more than 50 manufacturers since 1996. DLP technology is in use wherever visual excellence is in demand. In fact, it's the only display solution that enables movie projectors, televisions, home theater systems and business projectors to create an entirely digital connection between a graphic or video source and the screen in front of you. In addition to being highly efficient, the speed at which each mirror can modulate between the ON and OFF states is another key DLP advantage. Fast switching speed has enabled a compelling range of end products including the worlds smallest video and data projectors, HDTVs, and digital cinema. In the case of projectors, the microsecond allows the use of only one DMD light modulator resulting in small, compact optical architectures and thus very small projectors. Competitive approaches using slower modulators require three separate modulators for independently modulating red, blue and green sources. For digital cinema (using 3 DMDs, one for each primary color), the fast switching enables over 14 bits of gray scale per color, producing images that meet or exceed the quality of film. At the heart of every DLP projection system is an optical semiconductor known as the Digital Micromirror Device, or DMD chip, which was invented by Dr. Larry Hornbeck of Texas Instruments in 1987. When a DMD chip is coordinated with a digital video or graphic signal, a light source, and a projection lens, its mirrors can reflect an all-digital image onto a screen or other surface. The DMD and the sophisticated electronics that surround it are what we call Digital Light Processing technology. A DMD panel's micromirrors are mounted on tiny hinges that enable them to tilt either toward the light source in a DLP projection system (ON) or away from it (OFF)-creating a light or dark pixel on the projection surface. The DMD is illuminated using metallic halide or mercury lamps. The bit-streamed image code entering the semiconductor directs each mirror to switch on and off up to several thousand times per second. When a mirror is switched on more frequently than off, it reflects a light gray pixel; a mirror that's switched off more frequently reflects a darker gray pixel. In this way, the mirrors in a DLP projection system can reflect pixels in up to 1,024 shades of gray to

convert the video or graphic signal entering the DMD into a highly detailed grayscale image.

Incoming light hits the three mirror pixels. The two outer mirrors ("on") reflect the light through the projection lens and onto the screen, producing square, white pixel images. The central mirror is tilted ("off") and reflects light away from the projection lens to a light absorber -- no light reaches the screen at that particular pixel, so a square, dark pixel image is produced. In the same way, the remaining mirror pixels reflect light either to the screen or away from it.

Figure: 3.1

3.2ADDING COLOUR
The white light generated by the lamp in a DLP projection system passes through a color wheel as it travels to the surface of the DMD panel. The color wheel filters the light into red, green, and blue, from which a single-chip DLP projection system can create at least 16.7 million colors. And the 3DMD-chip system found in DLP Cinema projection systems is capable of producing no fewer than 35 trillion colors. The on and off states of each micromirror are coordinated with these three basic building blocks of color. For example, a mirror responsible for projecting a purple pixel will only reflect red and blue light to the projection surface; our eyes then blend these rapidly alternating flashes to see the intended hue in a projected image. White light passes through a color wheel filter, causing red, green and blue light to be shone in sequence on the surface of the DMD. The switching of the mirrors and the proportion of time they are 'on' or 'off' is coordinated according to the color shining on them. The human visual system integrates the sequential color and sees a full-color image. DLP technology-enabled projectors for very high image quality or high brightness applications such as cinema and large venue displays rely on a 3-DMD-chip configuration to produce stunning images, whether moving or still. In a 3-chip system, the white light generated by the lamp passes through a prism that divides it into red, green and blue. Each DMD chip is dedicated to one of these three colors; the colored light that the micromirrors reflect is then combined and passed through the projection lens to form an image.

White light is forced down onto a color wheel filter. This wheel spins in sequence with the red, green and blue video signals being sent to the DMD. Mirrors are turned "on" depending on where and how much of each color is needed for each TV field. The human visual system integrates the sequential color and sees a full-color image Figure: 3.2

3.3BINARY PULSE WIDTH MODULATION (PWM)

Light intensities from the DMD are produced by pulse width modulating the mirrors over the operating refresh time. For projector products, standard video signals are converted to this PWM format by DMD supporting electronics. In the binary PWM pixel representation, a pixel's LSB consumes 1/(2n -1) of the total refresh period, where n is the number of bits per color. The LSB+1 bit consumes double the LSB time. The given Figure shows Binary PWM sequence pattern with two examples of how pattern continues for all bits of the intensity values are generated for 5-bit video given pixel. The human visual system effectively integrates the pulsed light to form the perception of desired intensity. The gray scale perceived is proportional to the percentage of time the mirror is on during the refresh time.

Binary PWM sequence pattern with 2 examples of how intensity values are generated for 5bit video Figure: 3.3

4. BROADBAND OPERATION One of the inherent DMD advantages is its broadband capability. Due to its simple reflective operation, it can be made to modulate light somewhat independently of wavelength. This section deals with issues relating to DMD operation outside the 400-700nm visible spectrums. Several years ago TI engineers recognized a tendency for DMD pixel failures after exposure to increased amounts of illumination below 400nm (2). DMDs used in projector applications therefore incorporate optical window coatings that limit transmission below this wavelength as shown in Figure 9. Projector customers provide additional filtering to limit incident flux below 400nm to <0.7 watts/cm2. Since that time more has been learned about the root cause of these ultraviolet (UV) failures, and a 0.7 XGA DDR DMD optimized for 350-450nm is currently under development. The near term goal is to maximize window transmission and to consistently provide at least 2000 hours of useful life up to 10 watts/cm2 at these wavelengths.

Single-pass for DMD windows optimized for standard visible, ultraviolet, and near ultraviolet, and near infrared operation. Figure: 4.1

5.APPLICATIONS 5.1 LITHOGRAPHIC APPLICATION

Lithography is an important step in the process flow of semiconductor IC fabrication. Impurities are planted in to the silicon substrate by cutting windows in an oxide layer grown on the silicon substrate. Windows are cut on the silicon substrate by applying a photo resist coating and selectively exposing the photo resist using lithographic masks. The photolithographic mask determines the location of all windows in the oxide layer and hence areas over which a particular diffusion step is effective. Each complete mask consists of a photolithographic plate on which each window is represented by an opaque area. Different masks are required for each stage in the production of an array of ICs on a wafer. There is also a vital requirement for precise registration between one mask and the other in series, to ensure that there is no overlap between components and that each section of a particular IC is formed precisely in the correct location. Lithographic applications such as print setting, PCB manufacturing, and semiconductor patterning have historically utilized materials and processes based on pattern exposure to ultraviolet light. While the pattern mask has traditionally been provided via film or photo masks, all these industries desire the ability to pattern directly from a digital file. For some markets, scanned laser systems operating at visible wavelengths are being used to satisfy this direct write need. However, most industries desire a direct write means compatible with the UV-sensitive materials and processes that have been developed over many years. Its simple reflective properties, allowing efficient modulation across a broad spectral band, coupled with its superior data rate, make the DMD an ideal device for next generation lithographic systems.

5.2 VIDEO PROCESSING

The DMD forms the heart of Digital Light Processing (DLP) all-digital display systems. DLP systems are being developed in various forms, suitable for applications such as conference room projectors, institutional projectors, home theater, standard television, high definition displays, and motion pictures. These systems are characterized by: All digital display: DLP display systems are completely digital in that, except for the A/D conversion at the front end, all data processing and display are digital. Progressive display: DMD displays are inherently progressive, displaying complete frames of video. For interlace inputs such as most current video

inputs, this necessitates an interlace to progressive scan conversion. Progressive scan display also has the advantage of improving display quality by removing interlace artifacts such as flicker. Square pixels, fixed display resolution: the number of mirrors on the DMD fixes DMD display resolution. This, combined with the 1:1 aspect ratio of the pixels, requires resampling of various input video formats to fit onto the DMD array. Digital color creation: Spectral characteristics of the color filters and the lamp are coupled to digital color processing in the system. Digital display transfer characteristic: DMD displays exhibit a linear relationship between the gray scale value used to modulate the micromirrors and the corresponding light intensity. A degamma process is performed as part of the video processing, prior to DMD display, to compensate for video signal gamma and prepare the data for DMD display.
BLOCK DIAGRAM- Video processing for DLP display systems

The first block, labeled front-end processing performs signal-decoding operations. The input signal, if composite, is subjected to Y/C separation and chroma demodulation. Additional operations include Automatic Chroma Control (ACC), and Automatic Color Killer (ACK). The signal is digitized depending on the front end, the A/D conversion may occur either before or after Y/C separation. Digital Y/C data is output from this block and is subjected to Interpolative Processing, where the data undergoes interlace to progressive scan conversion, resampling, and picture enhancements. Picture enhancements include luminance and chrominance sharpening, and noise reduction. The enhanced, progressively scanned Y/C data is then passed through a color space conversion to obtain RGB data. This data is subjected to a degamma operation to remove the gamma imposed on the signal at transmission. During the degamma operation; error diffusion can be used as a means of subjectively

improving the non-linear digital remapping process. The linearized, progressive RGB data is then reformatted into bit plan level data which is used to drive the DMD display using a Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) technique [1]. The following sections will describe interlace-to-progressive-scan conversion, resampling, picture enhancements, and degamma/error diffusion.

5.3 MICROSCOPY
Over the history of the light microscope much effort has been expended in the pursuit of higher spatial resolution. Optical microscopes reached the so-called diffraction limit more than 100 years ago and indeed this quest for higher spatial resolution has been a vehicle for the development of the diffraction limited and chromatically corrected optical systems of today. Although this progress in resolution has been made largely with improvements in passive optics, more recent advances in microscopy have resulted in the use of active components such as lasers and spatial light modulators. An SLM finds application in optical microscopy principally as a spatial modulator of the incident or collected light rays. There are a large number of modes of microscopy, such as bright field, dark field, confocal, and phase contrast. In all of these methods light is delivered and collected in a controlled fashion. A key aspect of Digital Light Microscopy id the ability to control, manipulate, and process the flow of light with a high degree of efficiency and ease when illuminating a sample or measuring the signal from a sample. Selected techniques used in Digital Light Microscopy include Dynamic illumination and detection control; Control of illumination intensity Control of angle of illumination and detection; Rapid switching between microscopy modes; Rapid time based measurements; Massively parallel image capture capability; Resolution enhancement using advanced image-processing techniques. Control of the illumination and collection cones are accomplished by combining a lens and a diaphragm or aperture (iris, pin hole, annulus, etc.) In a conventional optical system, the diaphragm or aperture is static. An SLM can be used for shaping or scanning either the illumination or collection aperture of an optical microscope thus to provide a dynamic optical system that can switch between bright field, dark field as well as confocal microscopy. Thus DMD acts a synthetic, dynamic aperture for microscopy.

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Schematic representation of an optical microscope using the DMD as a scanning aperture Figure:5.1

5.4 SPECTROSCOPY
The use of DMD SLMs in spectrometry dates back nearly ten years. A schematic of a DMD based spectrometer is shown in Figure below. The source light is first collimated and then reflected from or transmitted through a dispersive element. Shown here is a concave grating being used to disperse the light being analyzed. The DMD is deployed as an adaptive reflective slit selectively routing the wavelength of interest to a detector. The DMD can be used not only to select and switch the light of a desired wavelength to the DMD detector, but can also be used to chop the light reaching the detector. In the early work very early DMD designs were used. In these designs the socalled mirror super structure was exposed and the contrast ratio of the DMD was only about 60:1. The DMDs produced today exhibit contrast ratios as high as 2000:1 and have substantially higher fill factor that the devices used in the earlier demonstrations. Both of these factors will provide higher performing spectrometers than were demonstrable in the early work. More recent work has been presented, in which complex transforms are performed using the DMD to significantly improve the signal-to-noise ratio of imaging spectrometers.

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Schematic representation of a DMD based digital spectrometer Figure: 5.2

5.5 PHOTOFINISHING
The earliest DLPTM application to emerge beyond display was digital photo finishing, in which conventional film-based equipment is replaced by DMDbased opto-electronics. DLPTM index print products were introduced in 1999 that step-print a group of color photos on a single page for identification. Minilab products soon followed, for which the DMD in scanned mode enables continuous printing at >300 full color dpi in the process direction. This allows the production of Advanced Photo System panoramic formats under electronic control without changes to the optical system. Other advantages are image clarity due to the high resolution, excellent fill-factor, and discrete spot size. These products feature >12 bits of dynamic exposure range, and produce print quality acknowledged by experts. A DMD-based central lab configuration has recently been demonstrated that produces 4x6 digital color prints at the rate of 10,000/hr.

5.6 SCIENTIFIC AND MEDICAL APPLICATIONS

The projected advances brought about by DMD use in microscopy, spectroscopy, and metrology will enable real time advanced imaging systems for medical and scientific markets. Advanced in-vivo imaging, and perhaps even treatment of cancerous tissue will be possible using DMD-based innovations in combination with endoscopy and other minimally invasive techniques. In-line quality inspection is another projected market, with the DMD used in machine vision systems to evaluate physical parameters and/or chemical composition. The DMD is seeing considerable interest from remote sensing and other security, space, and defense-related markets.

6. DMD PERFORMANCE HISTORY AND ROADMAP Through the years the DMD has achieved increasing levels of performance for a wide variety of formats as shown in Figure. Several years ago mirror pitch was reduced from 17um to 13.7um, allowing smaller device footprints and associated cost, and data load rate was increased from single data rate (SDR) to double data rate (DDR) for improved PWM capability. The most recent advances have been to 1) Increase mirror tilt from +/- 10 degrees to +/-12 degrees, enabling increased optical efficiency, 2) Increase projector contrast ratio to >1000:1 by using dark (non-reflecting) metal layers below each mirror, and 3) Transition DMD fabrication processes for compatibility with 200mm silicon wafer fabrication for increased capacity and reduced cost.

DMD technology advances and device formats Figure: 6.1

7.PERFORMANCE COMPARISON WITH LCD

As a binary SLM the DMD has significant performance advantages over its closest competitors, and for many potential applications has no current rival. LCD panels used in display applications have orders of magnitude slower pixel response than DMD and are operated in analog mode. Ferroelectric LCD (FLCD) technology is much less mature and difficult to fabricate but provides binary switching below 100us. While this is still several times slower than DMD, it enables companies such as Displaytech to market a QVGA (320x240) resolution sequential color display using binary PWM. Displaytech claims 100:1 contrast ratio, an order of magnitude below that of DLP TM projectors. Finally, LCD technology is very wavelength dependent and is not considered robust under UV illumination.

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8.DMD CONTROLLER
In order to enable the myriad of new DMD applications, several issues must be addressed: product flexibility, availability, and support. The same PWM hardware and software that have made DLPTM images so successful in the projector market are too inflexible to address most non-projector or specialty projector applications. The standard DLPTM digital video formatter has therefore been replaced with a flexible DMD controller for the DMD Discovery product line. The flexible controller gives the developer full control over data load and mirror reset timing and the ability to operate the 0.7 XGA DDR DMD to its full 7.6 gb/s data rate. The Starter Kit includes the DMD Discovery DMD Controller Board, USB user interface software, and a comprehensive documentation package. The Controller Board features a USB port that, when upgraded to USB 2.0 in 2003, will support several hundred DMD binary frames/sec of PC data. In order to utilize the full 9,700 frames/sec DMD capability, there is a hi-speed port with 64 60MHz DDR data lines and 16 control lines. Accessory products that plug into the Controller Board hi-speed port are already becoming available from third parties, providing various data source interfaces and memory functions.

DMD discovery controller board with DMD Figure: 8.1

Discovery 1000 chipset with 0.7 XGA DDR Figure: 8.2

DMD Discovery products are available from value-added resellers that provide product support Figure 16. Discovery 1000 chipset with 0.7 XGA DDR and may be contracted to develop custom electronics DMD, digital controller, and analog mirror reset driver based on the DMD Discovery TM chipset pictured in Figure. The chipset may also be purchased from these resellers. Both board and chipset products are marketed to support research projects as well as endproduct production of low-to-moderate volume.

9.THE FUTURE
Next generation DMDs will have additional increases in data throughput as well as mirror transition speed. The 0.7 XGA data rate will be significantly increased from the current 7.6 gigabits/sec data by utilizing an LVDS data interface, enabling frame rate and/or PWM improvements. Because of the strategic importance of entertainment and consumer markets such as HDTV, continued contrast improvement and cost reduction are major R&D drivers, with long-term emphasis on chip area reduction and low cost package technology. These projector developments should improve DMD properties for non-projector applications. For example, next generation package technology may allow improved window transmission properties for UV and other opportunities. However, non-projector applications will not in themselves drive major advances in DMD technology until new hi-volume market opportunities are evident.

Continuous improvement in full-on/full-off contrast ratio. Figure: 9.1

10.CONCLUSION

DMD technology is now firmly established in a variety of projection display products, enabling brilliant images through digital light switch solutions. At the heart of this technology is the DMD, a dense array of hundreds of thousands of tiny switchable mirrors whose pixel speed, contrast ratio, and broad spectral capability are unsurpassed by any other spatial light modulator. Many new DMD applications beyond projection display are emerging, and are being enabled through general use DMD products that are now available to developers. These DMD-based innovations will result in a portfolio of exciting new products with potential to disrupt multiple industries.

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REFERENCE:
WWW.DLP.COM WWW.TEXASINSTRUMENTS.COM