Spatial light modulator

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11979688-B2
Application number	US-202117408012-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 20, 2021
Priority date	Aug 21, 2020
Publication date	May 7, 2024
Grant date	May 7, 2024

Abstract

A liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator comprising an array of light-modulating pixels and a controller are disclosed. Each light-modulating pixel of the array comprises liquid crystal and is associated with a respective flip-flop. The controller receives a hologram of an image comprising a plurality of hologram pixels. Each hologram pixel comprises a respective n-bit hologram pixel value. The controller drives each light-modulating pixel in accordance with a respective hologram pixel value of the hologram. There is a one-to-n pixel correlation between the hologram and the light-modulating pixels. The flip-flops of each contiguous group of n light-modulating pixels are connected in series to form a shift register. During operation of the shift register, the n-bit hologram pixel value associated with each contiguous group of n light-modulating pixels is provided to each light-modulating pixel one bit at a time over the course of at least n clock cycles.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator comprising:
an array of light-modulating pixels each comprising liquid crystal, wherein each light-modulating pixel is associated with a respective flip-flop;
a controller arranged to: receive a hologram of an image, wherein the hologram comprising a plurality of hologram pixels each comprising a respective n-bit hologram pixel value; and drive each light-modulating pixel of a contiguous group of n light-modulating pixels in accordance with a respective hologram pixel value of the hologram such that there is a one-to-n pixel correlation between the hologram and the light-modulating pixels,
wherein the flip-flops of each contiguous group of n light-modulating pixels are connected in series to form a shift register such that, during operation of the shift register, the n-bit hologram pixel value associated with each contiguous group of n light-modulating pixels is provided to each light-modulating pixel of the contiguous group one bit at a time over the course of at least n clock cycles.

2. A liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator as claimed in claim 1 wherein each light-modulating pixel is further associated with a respective one-bit of memory and the controller is arranged to provide each light-modulating pixel of a contiguous group with a different bit of the respective n-bit hologram pixel value prior to operation of the shift register.

3. A liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator as claimed in claim 1 wherein the shift register is operated such that the liquid crystal of each light-modulating pixel responds to an RMS voltage corresponding to the respective n-bit hologram pixel value.

4. A liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator as claimed in claim 1 wherein n is dependent on wavelength and the controller is arranged to select n based on a wavelength associated with the hologram.

5. A liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator as claimed in claim 4 wherein n increases with wavelength.

6. A liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator as claimed in claim 1 wherein each flip-flop comprises a first output, “Q”, and a second output, “Q-bar”, wherein the first output is opposite to the second output, and the controller is arranged drive each light-modulating pixel of each contiguous group using the first outputs of the flip-flops for at least n clock cycles and then drive each light-modulating pixel of each contiguous group using the second output of the flip-flops for at least n clock cycles in order to achieve frame inversion.

7. A liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator as claimed in claim 1 wherein each contiguous group of pixels form a substantially square array or a substantially rectangular array.

8. A liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator as claimed in claim 1 wherein the clock of the shift register is operated at greater than 25 KHz such as greater than 50 KHz.

9. A liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator as claimed in claim 1 comprising at least 10,000×10,000 light modulating pixels, wherein the size of each pixel is less than 2×2 μm such as no more than 1×1 μm.

10. A holographic projector comprising the liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator of claim 1 and a light source, wherein the light source is arranged to illuminate the spatial light modulator such that a holographic reconstruction of the image is projected onto a replay plane.

11. A holographic projector as claimed in claim 10 wherein a first holographic reconstruction comprising light of a first wavelength and a second holographic reconstruction comprising light of a second wavelength are formed on a replay plane and the value of n associated with the first holographic reconstruction is different to the value of n associated with the second holographic reconstruction.

12. A holographic projector as claimed in claim 11 wherein the first wavelength is greater than the second wavelength and the value of n associated with the first holographic reconstruction is greater than the value of n associated with the second holographic reconstruction.

13. A holographic projector as claimed in claim 10 wherein the first holographic reconstruction is formed using a first liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator as claimed in claim 1 operating using a value of n=n1 and the second holographic reconstruction is formed using a second liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator as claimed in claim 1 operating using a value of n=n2, wherein n1 is not equal to n2.

14. A holographic projector as claimed in claim 10 wherein the first holographic reconstruction and second holographic reconstruction are formed using the same liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator a claimed in claim 1 , wherein the controller is arranged to reconfigure the light modulating pixels such that the first holographic reconstruction is formed using a value of n=n1 and the second holographic reconstruction is formed using a value of n=n2, wherein n1 is not equal to n2.

15. A method of operating a liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator comprising liquid crystal, wherein each light-modulating pixel is associated with a respective flip-flop, the method comprising:
receiving a hologram of an image, wherein the hologram comprising a plurality of hologram pixels each comprising a respective n-bit hologram pixel value;
driving each light-modulating pixel of a contiguous group of n light-modulating pixels in accordance with a respective hologram pixel value of the hologram such that there is a one-to-n pixel correlation between the hologram and the light-modulating pixels,
wherein the flip-flops of each contiguous group of n light-modulating pixels are connected in series to form a shift register, wherein the method further comprises:
operating the shift register such that the n-bit hologram pixel value associated with each contiguous group of n light-modulating pixels is provided to each light-modulating pixel of the contiguous group one bit at a time over the course of at least n clock cycles.

Assignees

• Dualitas Ltd

Inventors

• Christmas Jamieson

Classifications

• H04N9/312 Primary

  Driving therefor (driving of electronic spatial light modulators in displays other than projection devices G09G3/34, G09G3/36; control of liquid crystal elements G02F1/133; control of micromechanical modulators G02B26/08) · CPC title

• G03H1/0005

  Adaptation of holography to specific applications (holographic optical element G02B5/32; holographic scanner G02B26/106; recognition using holographic mask G06V10/88; holographic memories G11B7/0065, G11C13/042) · CPC title

• G03H1/2294

  Addressing the hologram to an active spatial light modulator · CPC title

• G09G3/003 Primary

  to produce spatial visual effects · CPC title

• G09G3/2022

  using sub-frames · CPC title