Micro-electromechanical based bistable color display sheets
First Claim
1. A micro-electromechanical shutter assembly comprising:
- a transparent face plate layer provided to protect the shutter assembly from environmental effects;
a first conductive layer located below the transparent face plate, patterned with vertical sidewalls which define a cavity;
a second conductive layer located below the first conductive layer patterned in the shape of a shutter including shutter segments suspended by springs, the shutter formed near the bottom of the cavity;
a spacer layer located below the second conductive layer;
an electrically insulating bottom layer located below the spacer layer, whereby the spacer layer defines a gap between the second conductive layer and the bottom layer;
a third conductive layer located on the electrically insulating bottom layer;
an electrical terminal which provides a selectively actuated bias voltage to the sidewalls;
first address signal lines in operative connection with the shutter assembly, to provide selectively actuated first address signals to the shutter assembly; and
second address signal lines in operative connection with the third conductive layer to provide selective actuated second address signals to the third conductive layer.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A micro-electromechanical bistable shutter display device is provided capable of being implemented for both small screen, high resolution devices and for large billboard-type displays. The micro-electromechanical shutter assembly has bi-stability characteristics which allow the use of only a holding voltage to maintain an image. The micro-electromechanical shutter assembly includes a shutter having petal-like shutter segments covering reflective or transmittive films. To expose the film in a particular shutter assembly, its shutter segments are moved from the horizontal to a vertical position using electrostatic attraction forces to “collapse” the torsionally-hinged shutter segments. The shutter assembly can have a number of segments, as long as the resulting shutter assembly shape can be stacked to form a dense 2D array.
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Citations
24 Claims
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1. A micro-electromechanical shutter assembly comprising:
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a transparent face plate layer provided to protect the shutter assembly from environmental effects;
a first conductive layer located below the transparent face plate, patterned with vertical sidewalls which define a cavity;
a second conductive layer located below the first conductive layer patterned in the shape of a shutter including shutter segments suspended by springs, the shutter formed near the bottom of the cavity;
a spacer layer located below the second conductive layer;
an electrically insulating bottom layer located below the spacer layer, whereby the spacer layer defines a gap between the second conductive layer and the bottom layer;
a third conductive layer located on the electrically insulating bottom layer;
an electrical terminal which provides a selectively actuated bias voltage to the sidewalls;
first address signal lines in operative connection with the shutter assembly, to provide selectively actuated first address signals to the shutter assembly; and
second address signal lines in operative connection with the third conductive layer to provide selective actuated second address signals to the third conductive layer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method of forming a micro-electromechanical shutter assembly comprising:
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patterning a first conductive layer with vertical sidewalls which form a cavity;
patterning a second conductive layer located below the vertical sidewalls into the form of a shutter, the shutter having at least two shutter segments connected to a shutter body through springs which allow for movement of the segments;
forming a spacer layer below the second conductive layer;
providing an electrically insulating bottom layer below the spacer layer such that a gap is formed between the second conductive layer and the bottom layer;
forming an electrode terminal on the first conductive layer in order to supply a bias voltage, the bias voltage causing at least one of the shutter segments to move from a horizontal position at substantially 0 degrees to a vertical position at substantially 90 degrees; and
forming addressing lines on at least one of the shutter and bottom layer to supply addressing signals, the addressing signals selectively causing at least one of the shutter segments in the vertical position at substantially 90 degrees to be moved to the horizontal position at substantially 0 degrees. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13)
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14. A shutter assembly array for use in a display device, the shutter assembly array comprising:
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a plurality of shutter assemblies including, a transparent face plate layer provided to protect the shutter assemblies from environmental effects, a first conductive layer located below the transparent face plate, patterned with vertical sidewalls which define a cavity, a second conductive layer located below the first conductive layer patterned in the shape of a shutter including shutter segments suspended by springs, the shutter formed near the bottom of the cavity, a spacer layer located below the second conductive layer, and an electrically insulating bottom layer located below the spacer layer, whereby the spacer layer defines a gap between the second conductive layer and the bottom layer;
an electrical terminal which provides a selectively actuated bias voltage to each shutter assembly, wherein the first conductive layer of each shutter assembly is common to each other shutter assembly of the array;
row address lines connected to the shutters of each shutter assembly of the array, to provide row address signals to selected shutter assemblies of the array; and
column address lines carried on the bottom layer of each shutter assembly of the array, to provide column address signals to selected shutter assemblies of the array. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16)
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17. A micro-electromechanical shutter assembly display comprising:
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a conductive cavity having substantially planar conductive sidewalls;
a plurality of shutter segments located within the cavity, the shutter segments being substantially perpendicular to the sidewalls when in a first position;
a conductive electrode film located below the shutter segments, in a position substantially parallel to the shutter segments in the first position;
wherein when no voltage is applied the sidewalls, shutter segments and the conductive electrode film of the shutter segments remain in the first position;
wherein when a critical bias voltage is applied between the sidewall and shutter segments the shutter segments are moved to a second position substantially parallel and into contact with the sidewalls; and
wherein when the critical bias voltage is applied between the sidewall and shutter segments, and a critical segments voltage is applied to selected shutter segments, the selected shutter segments are maintained or moved to the first position, and the shutter segments which were not selected are maintained or moved to the second position. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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18. The micro-electromechanical shutter assembly display according to claimed 17
wherein the display is configured as an array of shutter assemblies for use in at least one of a reflective projection, and transflective display device and wherein when an image is displayed on one of the reflective and projection displays, the image is maintained through a step of maintaining a holding voltage, whereby a refresh current is not required and therefore substantially no power is being consumed while displaying an image whereby power consumption occurs substantially only during switching of images.
Specification