SPATIAL LIGHT MODULATOR WITH MASKING-COMPARATORS

• US 20110150501A1
• Filed: 12/22/2010
• Published: 06/23/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Syndiant Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Syndiant Incorporated
• Inventors: Waller, Craig Michael, GUTTAG, Karl Marion, Lund, Joshua Abraham, Russell, Andrew Ian
• Granted Patent: US 8,605,015 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 398/182
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/20 Processor architectures; Processor configuration, e.g. pipelining
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/0235 Field-sequential colour display
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/061 for resetting or blanking
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/2014 by modulation of the duration of a single pulse during which the logic level remains constant
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3685 Details of drivers for data electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/10 Intensity circuits

Abstract

Described is a device comprising a spatial light modulator comprising a plurality of comparators for computing a respective drive for each pixel of a plurality of pixels.

Claims

1. A device comprising:

a spatial light modulator comprising a plurality of masking-processors for computing a respective drive for each pixel of a plurality of pixels on the spatial light modulator,

wherein each masking-processor comprises logic circuitry for logically and/or arithmetically comparing one or more multiple-bit pixel control values to one or more multiple-bit match values.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein each masking-processor masks one or more bit positions when comparing one or more multiple-bit pixel control values to one or more multiple-bit match values for each pixel of the plurality of pixels.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the device comprises a masking-loader for writing to storage one or more multiple-bit pixel control values when masked by each masking-processor.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the masking-processor comprises one or more masking comparators.

5. A device comprising:

a spatial light modulator comprising a plurality of processing elements for computing a respective drive waveform for each respective pixel of a plurality of pixels on the spatial light modulator, and

a command sequencer for generating a sequence of one or more programmable match values,

wherein each processing element of the plurality of processing elements comprises logic circuitry for logically and/or arithmetically comparing one or more multiple-bit pixel control values for a respective pixel of the plurality of pixels to the one or more programmable match values for the respective pixel.

6. The device of claim 5, wherein each processing element comprises masking-logic for ignoring one or more bits of the one or more multiple-bit pixel control values and/or the programmable match values when comparing the one or more multiple-bit pixel control values to the one or more programmable match values.

7. The device of claim 5, wherein the command sequencer generates the sequence of one or more multiple-bit match values based on one or more multiple-bit match values fetched from one or more memories of the device.

8. The device of claim 5, wherein the command sequencer comprises a function generator for generating the sequence of one or more multiple-bit match values.

9. The device of claim 5, wherein each processing element comprises one or more masking comparators.

10. A device comprising:

a spatial light modulator comprising;

a plurality of processing elements,

a pixel control value storage, and

an MRRAM array,

wherein the plurality of processing elements, the pixel control value storage and the MRRAM array are arranged in an ERAM-aligned architecture.

11. The device of claim 10, wherein the ERAM-aligned architecture comprises a butterflied-ERAM-and-processors architecture.

12. A method comprising the following steps:

(a) controlling a leading edge of a drive pulse based on a first subset of bits of a pixel control value, and

(b) controlling a trailing edge of that drive pulse based on a second subset of bits of the pixel control value to thereby generate a pixel drive waveform on a spatial light modulator that controls a pixel on a spatial light modulator for one multi-primary color,

wherein the second subset of bits is different than the first subset of bits.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first subset of bits has fewer bits in it than the second subset of bits.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the second subset of bits includes all of the bits of the first subset of bit.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the second subset of bits has some bits in common with the first subset of bits.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the method comprises the following steps:

(c) loading the first subset of bits onto storage on the spatial light modulator, and

(d) loading the second subset bits onto the storage on the spatial light modulator.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the pixel drive waveform starts before all the bits of the second subset of bits have been loaded on the spatial light modulator.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein steps (a) and (b) are repeated to generate a plurality of pixel drive waveforms on the spatial light modulator to thereby control a plurality of pixels on the spatial light modulator for one multi-primary color.

19. A method comprising the following steps:

(a) controlling a pixel of a spatial light modulator based on a first multiple-bit pixel control value,

(b) ignoring one or more first bits of the first multiple-bit pixel control value to thereby form one or more ignored bits, and

(c) storing one or more second bits for a second multiple-bit pixel control value in respective storage locations of the one or more ignored bits,

wherein the pixel of the spatial light modulator is controlled based on the second multiple-bit pixel control value.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the one or more first bits are used to control a first color of the pixel and wherein the one or more second bits are used to control a second color of the pixel.

21. The method of claim 19, comprising the following step:

(d) storing the first multiple bit pixel control value on the spatial light modulator prior to step (a).

22. A device comprising:

a spatial light modulator,

a multiple-bit-wide storage for multiple-bit pixel control values, and

a masking-loader for writing a subset of bits within the multiple-bit pixel control values, wherein the multiple-bit pixel control values are used to control pixels on the spatial light modulator.