COLOR HIGH-RESOLUTION SCANNING DISPLAY SYSTEM

• US 20070242344A1
• Filed: 08/29/2006
• Published: 10/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/06/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Spatial Photonics Incorporated (Himax Technologies Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Spatial Photonics Incorporated (Himax Technologies Incorporated)
• Inventors: Pan, Shaoher X.
• Application Number:
  US11/468,225
• Publication Number:
  US 20070242344A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 359/291
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 26/0833 the reflecting element being a micromechanical device, e.g. a MEMS mirror, DMD G02B26/0825 takes precedence; micromechanical devices in general B81B
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 26/125 Details of the optical system between the polygonal mirror and the image plane G02B26/123, G02B26/127 take precedence; F-Theta lenses G02B13/0005

Abstract

A display system includes one or more rows of tiltable micro mirrors, each of which is configured to be selectively tilted to an “on” position to reflect incident light in an “on” direction and to be selectively tilted to an “off” position to reflect incident light in an “off” direction; an optical projection system configured to project light reflected by the micro mirrors in the “on” direction to produce one or more first lines of image pixels along a first direction in a display image and to change the direction of the light reflected by the micro mirrors in the “on” direction to produce one or more second lines of image pixels in the display image and a light source to produce the incident light. The one or more second lines of image pixels are substantially parallel to the one or more first lines of image pixels.

Claims

1. A display system, comprising:

a spatial light modulator having one or more rows of tiltable micro mirrors, wherein each micro mirror is configured to be selectively tilted to an “

on”

position to reflect incident light in an “

on”

direction and to be selectively tilted to an “

off”

position to reflect incident light in an “

off”

direction;

an optical projection system configured to project light reflected by the micro mirrors in the “

on”

direction to produce one or more first lines of image pixels along a first direction in a display image and to change the direction of the light reflected by the micro mirrors in the “

on”

direction to produce one or more second lines of image pixels in the display image, wherein the one or more second lines of image pixels are substantially parallel to the one or more first lines of image pixels; and

at least one light source to produce the incident light;

wherein the display image is a color display image that is formed by sequentially producing image pixels of different colors.

2. The display system of claim 1, wherein the at least one light source includes a plurality of light sources, wherein each light source emits colored light and at least two of the light sources produce different colored light from one another.

3. The display system of claim 2, wherein the colored light from a first of the at least one of the light sources passes through a first beam splitter prior to reaching the spatial light modulator.

4. The display system of claim 3, wherein the colored light from a second of the at least two light sources is reflected by the first beam splitter prior to reaching the spatial light modulator.

5. The display system of claim 4, wherein the light from the first beam splitter is directed toward a second beam splitter and colored light from a third light source is also directed toward the second beam splitter.

6. The display system of claim 5, wherein light from the second beam splitter is directed toward the spatial light modulator.

7. The display system of claim 1, wherein the at least one light source is a white light source and before reaching the optical projection system, the light from the white light source passes through a color filter.

8. A display system, comprising:

a spatial light modulator having one or more rows of tiltable micro mirrors, wherein each micro mirror is configured to be selectively tilted to an “

on”

position to reflect incident light in an “

on”

direction and to be selectively tilted to an “

off”

position to reflect incident light in an “

off”

direction;

an optical projection system configured to project light reflected by the micro mirrors in the “

on”

direction to produce one or more first lines of image pixels along a first direction in a display image and to change the direction of the light reflected by the micro mirrors in the “

on”

direction to produce one or more second lines of image pixels in the display image, wherein the one or more second lines of image pixels are substantially parallel to the one or more first lines of image pixels; and

three light sources that each emit a different colored light from one another to produce the incident light;

wherein the display image is a color display image that is formed by producing image pixels of different colors simultaneously.

9. The display system of claim 8, further comprising a beam divider or an X-cube, wherein the beam divider or the X-cube is configured to change the direction of the light emitted by at least one light source of the three light sources and to combine the colored light from the three light sources.

10. The display system of claim 9, wherein each of the three light sources emit towards a corresponding spatial light modulator, and the light from the three light sources is directed to the corresponding spatial light modulator prior to reaching the beam divider or the X-cube.

11. The display system of claim 8, wherein the colored light from the three light sources reaches the spatial light modulator simultaneously.

12. The display system of claim 8, wherein the three light sources include a red light source, a blue light source and a green light source.

13. The display system of claim 8, wherein a subset of the wavelengths of the light from at least one light source are divided out prior to the reflected incident light reaching the optical projection system.

14. The display system of claim 8, further comprising a beam divider, which redirects the light toward a spatial light modulator.

15. The display system of claim 8, further comprising a beam divider, which redirects the light toward the optical projection system.

16. The display system of claim 15, further comprising a corresponding spatial light modulator for each of the three light sources, wherein the colored light is reflected by the corresponding spatial light modulator towards the beam divider.

17. The display system of claim 8, further comprising a transport mechanism configured to rotate the projection device to change the direction of the light reflected by the micro mirrors in the “

on”

direction to a plurality of directions such that a plurality of sets of one or more second lines of image pixels are formed substantially parallel to the one or more first lines of image pixels.

18. The display system of claim 8, wherein each micro mirror is configured to be tilted by an electrostatic force about an axis substantially perpendicular to the row direction of the one or more rows of tiltable micro mirrors.