1. Field
The field of the invention relates to microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).
2. Description of the Related Technology
Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) include micro mechanical elements, actuators, and electronics. Micromechanical elements may be created using deposition, etching, and or other micromachining processes that etch away parts of substrates and/or deposited material layers or that add layers to form electrical and electromechanical devices. One type of MEMS device is called an interferometric modulator. An interferometric modulator may comprise a pair of conductive plates, one or both of which may be transparent and/or reflective in whole or part and capable of relative motion upon application of an appropriate electrical signal. One plate may comprise a stationary layer deposited on a substrate, the other plate may comprise a metallic membrane separated from the stationary layer by an air gap. Such devices have a wide range of applications, and it would be beneficial in the art to utilize and/or modify the characteristics of these types of devices so that their features can be exploited in improving existing products and creating new products that have not yet been developed.
The system, method, and devices of the invention each have several aspects, no single one of which is solely responsible for its desirable attributes. Without limiting the scope of this invention, its more prominent features will now be discussed briefly. After considering this discussion, and particularly after reading the section entitled “Detailed Description of Preferred Embodiments” one will understand how the features of this invention provide advantages over other display devices.
One embodiment is a light modulator that includes an array of elements at least some of which have different values of deflection versus addressing pulse width. The light modulator further includes addressing circuitry configured to provide addressing pulses of varying width to the array of elements such that different combinations of elements switch in a selectable manner, depending upon the width of the addressing pulses.
Another embodiment is a light modulator that includes an array of elements having differing values of deflection versus applied voltage. The light modulator further includes addressing circuitry configured to provide addressing pulses of varying voltage level to the array of elements such that different combinations of elements switch in a selectable manner, depending upon the voltage level of the addressing pulses.
Another embodiment is a display including a plurality of MEMS elements arranged in rows. The MEMS elements of each of the rows are further arranged in subrows. The subrows of each row are electrically connected. The display further includes a plurality of resistors. Each of the resistors is connected to a respective one of the subrows. The respective one of the resistors for each of the subrows of each row has a different resistance from the resistors connected to the other subrows of the row.
Another embodiment is a method of addressing a plurality of display elements having at least a first and second display element and characterized by respective response thresholds. The method includes generating a first pulse characterized by a parameter having a value greater than the response threshold of the first display element and less than the response threshold of the second display element. The method further includes applying the first pulse to the plurality of display elements.
One embodiment is a driver circuit for addressing a plurality of display elements having at least a first and second display element and characterized by respective response thresholds. The driver circuit includes means for generating a first pulse characterized by a parameter having a value greater than the response threshold of the first display element and less than the response threshold of the second display element. The driver circuit further includes means for applying the first pulse to the plurality of display elements.
In preferred embodiments, the invention addresses a group of display elements with a drive signal applied through a common driver connection to the group of display elements. The display can thus produce more shades of gray, or color, with a smaller number of leads than would be necessary if drive signal for each display element were applied through separate leads for each display element.
The following detailed description is directed to certain specific embodiments of the invention. However, the invention can be embodied in a multitude of different ways. In this description, reference is made to the drawings wherein like parts are designated with like numerals throughout. As will be apparent from the following description, the invention may be implemented in any device that is configured to display an image, whether in motion (e.g., video) or stationary (e.g., still image), and whether textual or pictorial. More particularly, it is contemplated that the invention may be implemented in or associated with a variety of electronic devices such as, but not limited to, mobile telephones, wireless devices, personal data assistants (PDAs), hand-held or portable computers, GPS receivers/navigators, cameras, MP3 players, camcorders, game consoles, wrist watches, clocks, calculators, television monitors, flat panel displays, computer monitors, auto displays (e.g., odometer display, etc.), cockpit controls and/or displays, display of camera views (e.g., display of a rear view camera in a vehicle), electronic photographs, electronic billboards or signs, projectors, architectural structures, packaging, and aesthetic structures (e.g., display of images on a piece of jewelry). MEMS devices of similar structure to those described herein can also be used in non-display applications such as in electronic switching devices.
One interferometric modulator display embodiment comprising an interferometric MEMS display element is illustrated in
The depicted portion of the pixel array in
The fixed layers 16a, 16b are electrically conductive, partially transparent and partially reflective, and may be fabricated, for example, by depositing one or more layers each of chromium and indium-tin-oxide onto a transparent substrate 20. The layers are patterned into parallel strips, and may form row electrodes in a display device as described further below. The movable layers 14a, 14b may be formed as a series of parallel strips of a deposited metal layer or layers (orthogonal to the row electrodes 16a, 16b) deposited on top of posts 18 and an intervening sacrificial material deposited between the posts 18. When the sacrificial material is etched away, the deformable metal layers are separated from the fixed metal layers by a defined air gap 19. A highly conductive and reflective material such as aluminum may be used for the deformable layers, and these strips may form column electrodes in a display device.
With no applied voltage, the cavity 19 remains between the layers 14a, 16a and the deformable layer is in a mechanically relaxed state as illustrated by the pixel 12a in
In one embodiment, the processor 21 is also configured to communicate with an array controller 22. In one embodiment, the array controller 22 includes a row driver circuit 24 and a column driver circuit 26 that provide signals to a pixel array 30. The cross section of the array illustrated in
In typical applications, a display frame may be created by asserting the set of column electrodes in accordance with the desired set of actuated pixels in the first row. A row pulse is then applied to the row I electrode, actuating the pixels corresponding to the asserted column lines. The asserted set of column electrodes is then changed to correspond to the desired set of actuated pixels in the second row. A pulse is then applied to the row 2 electrode, actuating the appropriate pixels in row 2 in accordance with the asserted column electrodes. The row 1 pixels are unaffected by the row 2 pulse, and remain in the state they were set to during the row 1 pulse. This may be repeated for the entire series of rows in a sequential fashion to produce the frame. Generally, the frames are refreshed and/or updated with new display data by continually repeating this process at some desired number of frames per second. A wide variety of protocols for driving row and column electrodes of pixel arrays to produce display frames are also well known and may be used in conjunction with the present invention.
In the
The details of the structure of interferometric modulators that operate in accordance with the principles set forth above may vary widely. For example,
Data describing a monochrome display image may include one bit of data per pixel. One embodiment of a monochrome display includes one interferometric modulator per pixel, the on or off state of the modulator being set based on the value of the one bit of data per pixel. A greyscale image may include several bits of data per pixel. For example, a “3 bit” grayscale display includes 3 bits of data per pixel that correspond to one of eight shades of gray that may be assigned to each pixel. One embodiment of a display for displaying an exemplary 3 bit grayscale image includes three interferometric modulators for each pixel. To obtain the eight shades, the three modulators reflect light according to a ratio of 1:2:4. In one such embodiment, each of the interferometric modulators includes mirrors having a reflective surface area that varies according to the ratio of 1:2:4. A particular shade in a pixel is obtained in such an embodiment by setting each modulator to an on or off state based on the binary value of a corresponding bit of the 3 bits of data. One embodiment of a color display works similarly except that the color display includes a group of red, green, and blue interferometric modulators. For example, in a 12-bit color display, 4 of the 12 bits correspond to each of 16 intensities of red, green, and blue which are produced by red, green, or blue interferometric modulators. Such greyscale or color displays have more display elements to address than does a monochrome display. In order to address these display elements for such embodiments of gray or color displays, the number of electrical connections to the display control increases. For example, in one embodiment of a 3×3 3-bit grayscale display, each of the rows is subdivided into 3 subrows. Each pixel of such an embodiment of the display comprises the interferometric modulators of the three subrows. One such embodiment has 3*3=9 row driver connections and 3 column driver connections for a total of twelve driver connections rather than the 6 for a 3×3 monochrome display.
One way of reducing the number of driver connections is to electrically connect together a group of modulators, for example, the 3 subrows in the 3 bit grayscale embodiment discussed above, and drive the group with a signal that changes the state of a subset of the electrically connected group.
For example, one way to selectively address a group of electrically connected interferometric modulators is to apply a drive signal in a pulse that is not of a sufficient duration to change the state of some of the group of modulators. Generally, the time period for a particular modulator in the display to change state in response to the leading edge of the row strobe may be referred to as a response time, τ. Note that the term “response time” may refer to either the time for an interferometric modulator to move from a reflective to non-reflective state or the time for the modulator to move from the non-reflective state to the reflective state. In one embodiment of the interferometric modulator display, the time period τ is conceptually the sum of an electrical response time, τRC, and a mechanical response time, τM. With respect to the electrical response time, each of the interferometric modulators in the display is forms a respective circuit that may be characterized by a resistor-capacitor (RC) time constant. The electrical response time, τRC, is the time period from the leading edge of the row strobe pulse to the time that the circuit is charged to the actuation or release voltage across the mirrors. The mechanical response time, τM, is the time period for the movable mirror to physically change positions once the actuation or release voltage has been reached. The time for the modulator to move to a new position, τM, is dependent on factors such as a spring constant associated with the movable mirror of the modulator and the resistance to air of the mirror as it moves. One embodiment of the display includes groups of electrically connected modulators with different response times. By applying a common pulse to the group of modulators that is shorter than the response time of some of the modulators but longer than the response time of other of the modulators, the state of different combinations of the modulators can be set.
The response times of an interferometric modulator is affected by the characteristic resistor-capacitor (RC) time of the driver circuit inclusive of the modulator, i.e., the time for the movable mirror of the modulator to be charged to a particular voltage, of the mechanical properties of the modulator, and of the resistance of the movable mirror to moving through air. In the embodiment depicted in
The pulses of
In the illustrated embodiment, each of these line times for a row is approximately the same. However, it is to be recognized that in other embodiments, the line times may be shorter, for example, the line times for a row may shortened to correspond to the shorter row pulse durations of each of the line times of a row. Further, any other suitable drive voltage scheme may be used in place of the exemplary scheme depicted in
In some embodiments, the response time of the interferometric modulators is varied by mechanical differences rather than electrical differences in the subrows. For example, variation in the damping force caused by the air in the small cavity between movable mirror and the fixed mirror can vary the response times. This damping force acts as a resistance to moving the movable mirror through air. In one embodiment, this force is varied by forming holes in the movable mirror to reduce the air pressure against the movable mirror as it actuates and thus changes the electromechanical response of the actuator. In another embodiment, the holes are formed in the deformable film 34 of
In other embodiments, other mechanical properties of the interferometric modulators may be varied so as to vary the mechanical response times of the interferometric modulators between subrows. The response time is dependent on several factors that may be varied, including the thickness, mass, or material of the movable mirror 14 or the deformable layer 34 of
Rather than having varying response times, in other embodiments, the interferometric modulators of each of the subrows may have varying actuation and release voltages so as to enable a set of electrically connected subrows to be individually addressed.
The hysteresis window of the modulators associated with each subrow may be selected by varying the geometry and materials of the modulators. In particular, the width (difference between the actuation and release voltages), the location (the absolute values of the actuation and release voltages), and the relative values of the actuation and release voltages may be selected by varying geometric and material properties of the modulators. The varied properties may include, for example, the distance between movable mirror supports, the mass associated with the movable mirror relative to the spring constant, the thickness, tensile stress, or stiffness of the mirror and/or the layers or mechanism that moves the mirror, the dialectic constant or thickness of a dielectric layer between the stationary electrode and the movable electrode. More details of the selection of the hysteresis properties of the interferometric modulators are disclosed in U.S. Provisional Patent No. 60/613,382, entitled “METHOD AND DEVICE FOR SELECTIVE ADJUSTMENT OF HYSTERESIS WINDOW,” filed on Sep. 27, 2004.
In one such embodiment, the interferometric modulators are arranged in subrows as in
The pulses of
It is to be recognized that while certain embodiments disclosed herein are discussed with respect to “rows” and “columns,” these terms are used for convenience only in describing these embodiments. In other embodiments, the properties attributed to rows or columns in the exemplary embodiments may be completely or partially reversed as would be apparent to one of skill in the art. Further, while embodiments are illustrated in
Moreover, while certain embodiments have been discussed with respect to electrically connected groups of interferometric modulators with different response times, and certain other embodiments discussed with respect to electrically connected groups of interferometric modulators with different hysteresis stability windows, other embodiments may include groups of electrically connected modulators that have different response times and different hysteresis stability windows. Such embodiments may be addressed using a series of pulses that vary in both duration and voltage.
While the above detailed description has shown, described, and pointed out novel features of the invention as applied to various embodiments, it will be understood that various omissions, substitutions, and changes in the form and details of the device or process illustrated may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. The scope of the invention is indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.
This application is a continuation in part of U.S. Application Ser. No. 10/731,989, filed Dec. 9, 2003. This application also claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/613,458, titled “PIXEL ELEMENT WITH SUB-PIXELS HAVING DIFFERING ACTUATION VOLTAGES”, filed Sep. 27, 2004, U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/604,896, filed Aug. 27, 2004 titled “METHODS OF ADDRESSING A BI-STABLE MODULATOR”; U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/606,223, filed Aug. 31, 2004, titled “METHODS OF ADDRESSING A BI-STABLE MODULATOR”; and U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/614,032, titled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INTERFEROMETRIC MODULATION”, filed Sep. 27, 2004. Each of the foregoing applications is incorporated by reference, in its entirety.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20050206991 A1 | Sep 2005 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
60613458 | Sep 2004 | US | |
60606223 | Aug 2004 | US | |
60604896 | Aug 2004 | US | |
60614032 | Aug 2004 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
Parent | 10731989 | Dec 2003 | US |
Child | 11051251 | US |