Field emission charge controlled mirror (FEA-CCM)
First Claim
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1. A light modulator, comprising:
- a thin vacuum cell having a transparent faceplate;
a charge controlled mirror (CCM) in said vacuum cell adjacent the interior surface of said faceplate, said CCM comprising an array of electrostatically-actuable micromirrors;
a collector grid in said vacuum cell; and
a field emitter array (FEA) in said vacuum cell that comprises an array of field emitter tips that emit primary electrons, said primary electrons accelerating through said collector grid and striking the backside of the CCM causing secondary electrons to be ejected and collected on the collector grid leaving a charge pattern on the backside of the CCM that produces electrostatic forces that deflect said micromirrors.
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Abstract
A bright, high contrast, compact, large area, high-resolution light modulator uses a field emitter array (FEA) to address a charge controlled mirror (CCM). The FEA deposits a charge pattern onto the CCM, which in turn produces electrostatic forces that deflect the micromirrors in accordance with the amount of accumulated charge. The CCM that is used in combination with the FEA can be configured in many different ways to implement different actuation modes, e.g. attractive, repulsive, grid-actuated or membrane-actuated and different charge control modes, e.g. RC decay, RC sustain and charge control.
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Citations
38 Claims
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1. A light modulator, comprising:
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a thin vacuum cell having a transparent faceplate; a charge controlled mirror (CCM) in said vacuum cell adjacent the interior surface of said faceplate, said CCM comprising an array of electrostatically-actuable micromirrors; a collector grid in said vacuum cell; and a field emitter array (FEA) in said vacuum cell that comprises an array of field emitter tips that emit primary electrons, said primary electrons accelerating through said collector grid and striking the backside of the CCM causing secondary electrons to be ejected and collected on the collector grid leaving a charge pattern on the backside of the CCM that produces electrostatic forces that deflect said micromirrors. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A light modulator, comprising:
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a thin vacuum cell having a transparent faceplate; a charge controlled mirror (CCM) having a plurality of electrostatically-actuable electrically isolated micromirrors on said faceplate, each said micromirror having a deflectable mirror element that is joined to an underlying base electrode by an electrically conductive hinge; a collector grid in said vacuum cell; a field emitter array (FEA) in said vacuum cell that comprises an array of field emitter tips that emit primary electrons, said primary electrons accelerating through said collector grid and striking the micromirrors causing secondary electrons to be ejected and collected on the collector grid leaving a charge pattern on the array of micromirrors that distributes itself over the mirror element and base electrode to produce electrostatic fringing forces that repel said mirror elements outward away from their respective underlying electrodes. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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21. A light modulator, comprising:
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a thin vacuum cell having a transparent faceplate; a charge controlled mirror (CCM) having a plurality of electrostatically-actuable electrically isolated micromirrors on said faceplate; a collector grid biased at a grid potential; and a field emitter array (FEA) having an array of field emitter tips that emit primary electrons which are accelerated through said collector grid and strike the micromirrors thereby ejecting secondary electrons and depositing a negative charge pattern on said micromirrors, said collector grid collecting the ejected secondary electrons and producing attractive electrostatic forces that deflect said micromirrors toward said collector grid in accordance with the difference between said grid potential and the respective micromirror potentials induced by said negative charge pattern. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A light modulator, comprising:
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a vacuum cell having a transparent faceplate; a charge controlled mirror (CCM) mounted in said vacuum cell, comprising, an array of electrostatically-actuable pivotable micromirrors on said faceplate that are held at an reference potential; an array of insulating posts on said faceplate; a thin floating-potential insulating membrane supported on said insulating posts above said array of micromirrors; and a collector grid that is spaced apart from said membrane opposite said array of micro mirrors; and a field emitter array (FEA) that is supported on said insulating posts in said vacuum cell and emits primary electrons that are accelerated through said collector grid and strike the backside of said insulating membrane causing secondary electrons to be ejected and collected on the collector grid thereby leaving a charge pattern on said membrane that produces finely-resolved attractive electrostatic forces that cause said micromirrors to pivot and deflect toward the membrane. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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35. A light modulator, comprising
a thin vacuum cell having a transparent faceplate; -
a charge controlled mirror (CCM) in said vacuum cell adjacent the interior surface of said faceplate, said CCM comprising an array of electrostatically-actuable micromirrors in which each micromirror comprises a deflectable mirror element that is supported above an underlying reference electrode that is held at a reference potential, said micromirrors being susceptible to snap-over when the potential difference between the mirror element and the reference electrode exceeds a threshold potential; a collector grid in said vacuum cell that is biased at a grid potential below said threshold potential; and a field emitter array (FEA) in said vacuum cell that comprises an array of field emitter tips that emit primary electrons, said primary electrons accelerating through said collector grid and striking the micromirrors causing secondary electrons to be ejected and collected on the collector grid leaving a charge pattern on the mirror elements that increases their potentials toward said grid potential thereby producing electrostatic forces that deflect said mirror elements toward said reference electrode. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37, 38)
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Specification