Driving method of memory access

• US 8,154,474 B2
• Filed: 03/25/2009
• Issued: 04/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ignite USA (Ignite), Olympus Corporation
• Original Assignee: Olympus Corporation, Silicon Quest Kabushiki-Kaisha
• Inventors: Ishii, Fusao, Sugimoto, Naoya, Maeda, Yoshihiro
• Primary Examiner(s): OSORIO, RICARDO
• Application Number:
  US12/383,621
• Publication Number:
  US 20090219279A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,112 Days
• Field of Search: 345/32, 345/55, 345/84, 345 87- 89, 345 98-100, 345/103, 345/690
• US Class Current: 345/32
• 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: G09G 2300/0842 forming a memory circuit, e.g. a dynamic memory with one capacitor
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0223 Compensation for problems related to R-C delay and attenuation in electrodes of matrix panels, e.g. in gate electrodes or on-substrate video signal electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/2022 using sub-frames
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/346 based on modulation of the reflection angle, e.g. micromirrors micromirrors devices per se G02B26/0833
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/3123 using pulse width modulation

Abstract

The present invention provides a spatial light modulator, comprising: a plurality of pixel elements wherein each of the pixel elements comprises at least a switching element; a plurality of control lines connected to at least one of the switching elements; and a controller for generating and transmitting a control signal through the control line for controlling the switching element, wherein the controller starts transmitting the control signal to a first switching element through a first control line before the control signal applied to a second switching element through a second control line is turned off at a low voltage level.

Claims

1. A spatial light modulator, comprising:

a plurality of pixel elements wherein each of the pixel elements comprises at least a switching element;

a plurality of control lines connected to at least one of the switching elements; and

a controller for generating and transmitting a control signal through the control line for controlling the switching element, wherein

the controller starts transmitting the control signal to a first switching element through a first control line before the control signal applied to a second switching element through a second control line is turned off at a low voltage level.

2. The spatial light modulator according to claim 1, wherein:

the controller controls the low voltage level substantially at a threshold voltage for operating the switching element.

3. The spatial light modulator according to claim 1, wherein:

the controller generates the output signals for transmitting therefrom with an interval less than or equal to 20 nanoseconds.

4. The spatial light modulator according to claim 1, further comprising:

a timing adjuster for adjusting an interval of the control signals output from the controller to the control line in order to control the switching element of the pixel elements.

5. The spatial light modulator according to claim 4, further comprising:

a detector for detecting a result of adjustment amount of the switching elements; and

the timing adjuster further receives and applies the result of adjustment amount from the detector to automatically adjust the interval of the control signals.

6. The spatial light modulator according to claim 4, wherein:

The timing adjuster further receives and applies a signal representing a temperature of the spatial light modulator to adjust the interval of the control signals.

7. The spatial light modulator according to claim 4, wherein:

the timing adjuster further receives and applies a signal representing a number of gray scale levels of the spatial light modulator to adjust the interval of the control signals.

8. The spatial light modulator according to claim 4, further comprising:

a second control line for transmitting control signals to control the pixel element independently from the control signals transmitted on the plurality of control lines, and

a second unit of the controller for generating and transmitting a second control signal to the second control line, wherein the timing adjuster further adjusts the interval of the second control transmitted from the second unit of the controller.

9. The spatial light modulator according to claim 4, further comprising:

a data setup circuit for setting data to the pixel element through the switching element, wherein the timing adjuster further adjusts the interval of operations between setting data to the pixel element.

10. The spatial light modulator according to claim 4, wherein:

the timing adjuster further applies a number of the control lines connected to the switching elements to adjust the interval of the control signals.

11. The spatial light modulator according to claim 1, further comprising:

a data setup circuit for transmitting data to a plurality of control units of the controller and to the pixel element through the switching element.

12. The spatial light modulator according to claim 1, wherein:

the controller comprises at least two control units, wherein at least two control units are connected to a same control line.

13. The spatial light modulator according to claim 1, wherein:

the controller further comprises at least two control units, wherein the control units are placed on an upper and a lower sides surrounding the spatial light modulator, or surrounding a left and a right sides of the spatial light modulator to sandwich a region for placement of the plurality of pixel elements.

14. The spatial light modulator according to claim 1, wherein:

the controller further comprises at least two control units, and

a plurality of the control units further comprise a data setup circuit for setting data to the pixel element through the switching element.

15. The spatial light modulator according to claim 1, wherein:

the controller starts to transmit the control signal to the first switching element through the first control line before the control signal applied to the second switching element through the second control line is turned off at a low voltage level during a time slot for a grayscale representation of a least significant bit (LSB) in applying a pulse width modulation to control the spatial light modulator for displaying an image with gray scales represented by a data comprising several bits.

16. The spatial light modulator according to claim 1, wherein:

the pixel elements arranged as a pixel array comprising more than 921,600 pixel elements.

17. The spatial light modulator according to claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of the control lines connected to and transmitting signals to control pixel elements extended along a horizontal direction of the spatial light modulator.

18. The spatial light modulator according to claim 1 further comprising:

a digital micromirror device (DMD).

19. The spatial light modulator according to claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of data setup lines connected to at least one of the switching elements, and

a data setup circuit comprises a plurality of setup units for setting data to the switching element through the data setup line, wherein the setup units are connected is sequentially connected according to an order of each control line connected to the controller for sequentially receiving a data setup timing clock signal from the controller.

20. The spatial light modulator according to claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of data setup lines connected to at least one of the switching elements, and

a data setup circuit comprises a plurality of setup units for setting data to the switching element through the data setup line, wherein of the setup units drive the data setup lines sequentially according to an order of each control line connected to the controller.