DLP - Digital Light Processing

Based on, High-Brightness High-Resolution Applications

What is DLP Technology ?• Digital Light Processing (DLP) is a display technology

developed by Texas Instruments. • It provides all-digital projection displays that offer

superior picture quality in terms of resolution, brightness, contrast.

• This provides an overview of the digital video processing solutions like scan conversion, picture enhancements, color processing.

• DLP™ technology is in use wherever visual excellence is in demand.

Background Information

• DLP was invented in 1987 by Dr. Hornbeck of Texas Instruments Inc. In 1992, TI started a project to explore the DMD's commercial viability.

A year later, it named the new technology DLP and formed a separate group to develop commercial display applications.

In 1994, TI demonstrated DLP projectors for the first time.

In 1997, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences chose DLP to project film at the Oscars, where the first three-chip DLP technology was demonstrated to the Hollywood community.

In 1999, DLP Cinema was first demonstrated to the public with the release of Star Wars Episode I: the Phantom Menace. By December 2002, TI had shipped 2 million DLP subsystems.

DLP Products has also received two Emmy Awards, for excellence in 1998 and for technology and engineering in 2003.

In 2002, Hornbeck was elected a fellow of the International Society for Optical Engineering and received the David Sarnoff Medal from the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers.

• Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)

• Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)

• Plasma

Enter Digital Light Processing

• pixels on a DLP chip is a reflective mirror

• amplifies the light generated from the chip.

• The advantage of DLP

It produces bright, high-contrast images

It can be projected onto any size screen

Important Basic Concepts of DLP

• DMD

• Color Wheel

Heart of DLP Invented by Larry Hornbeck

of Texas Instrument world's most sophisticated light switch Rectangular array of up to 1.3 million of hinge-mounted movable microscopic mirrors Size of a fifth of human hair Each mirror correspond to one pixel of image Mounted over a CMOS SRAM

Semiconductor That Changed Everything

• Not operating – parked at 0 degree

• On – Tilt +10 degrees

• Off – Tilt –10 degrees

• On/Off Switching – 1000 times/sec

Consists of 508,800 tiny,

tiltable mirrors The tilt directs light toward the screen,

or into a "light trap" that eliminates unwanted light when reproducing blacks and shadows.

A glass window seals and protects the mirrors.

DLP: Adding Colors

• The white light passes through a color wheel • The color wheel filters the light into red, green, and

blue.• a single-chip DLP projection system can create at

least 16.7 million colors. • 3-DMD chip system is capable of producing no fewer

than 35 trillion colors.

• Signal Conversion

• Gray Scale Image

• Color Creation

How DLP works ?

• Accepts both analog or digital signal

• All signals must be converted into digital

• The digital signal, enables mirrors to tilt towards “On” or away from “Off” light source.

Step 1 –

Step 2 – On” – light Pixel vs. “Off” – Dark Pixel Mirror switched on more frequently than off – Reflects Light Gray

Pixel Rapid Switching allows up to 1024 shades of gray reflections Digitalized video signal entering DMD get converted into highly

detailed grayscale image

Not present

Step 3 – • Color is added as white light from the lamp passes through

a color wheel filter• Color Wheel – RED, GREEN & BLUE• mirrors on DMD are tilted on for the exact amount of time

required for each basic color• Only 1 color is shined onto DMD at a time• When spinning fast enough, human eyes blend alternating

flashes to view “more” colors in the projected image.

Color wheel present

DLP Technology allows for a clear smooth picture with no glare due to its embossed coating technology:

• DLP Technology allows for a clear smooth picture with no glare due to its embossed coating technology: 

 

Anti Glare Coating Screen  Normal Screen

Current Projection TV or Monitor

Technology

• Every pixel on a DLP chip is a reflective mirror, which amplifies the light generated from the chip.

• There is no limit to the size of the screen that can be manufactured.

• Brightness and contrast is even across the entire surface of the screen.

A 43" DLP™ TV is 35% slimmer and 56% lighter than a 36" direct view TV.

ARCHITECTURE DESIGN

Only inorganic

Mirrors are aluminium

Off chip drivers

Arrayed on center->high fill factor

Electrostatic torque

+ve & -ve

Potential of yoke

Thick oxide

Brightness, contrast ratio

EXAMPLES

Video processing systems SVP2 Performing 5.7 billion 8-bit additions/sec. Data Path ASIC 48-bit Data Input Register(DIR) 32-bit DOR Independent Clock Control Room Projectors, home theater, CRT, institutional

projectors.

16.7 millions of colors TV, projector, home theater system

1-chip DLP Projection System

3-chip DLP Projection System3-chip DLP Projection System

35 trillion of colors35 trillion of colors 3 DMD configuration3 DMD configuration Each DMD dedicated to 1 color onlyEach DMD dedicated to 1 color only White light passes through a prism to White light passes through a prism to

divide red, green and blue and later divide red, green and blue and later

recombinerecombine to form image to form image

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CONVERGENCE OF TECHNOLOGY

• Rotation of the mirror • memory cell in the

on (1) state, the mirror

rotates to +10 degrees. off (0) state, the mirror rotates

to -10 degrees (1) state of the mirror

appears bright (0) state of the mirror appears dark.

INDUSTRY RELEVANCE

• used in large projection screen applications

• Mission To Mars, Toy Story 2, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Disney's Dinosaur, and Spy Kids.

• several manufacturers, such as Hitachi, Panasonic, Samsung, and Mitsubishi are producing rear-projection DLP sets for the consumer.

• organic compounds in LCD panels susceptible to high heat and light energy stress.

• DLP technology does not use organic compounds

• LCD technology has a failure mode that does not exist with DLP.

FUTURE OF TECHNOLOGY

• HD2+ for contrast ratios greater than 3000:1 for much improved color.

• eliminating more of the latent brightness when in the “off” position .

• Sequential Color Recapture (SCR)

“Spiral of Archimedes”