TABLE OF CONTENTS Plasma and LCD television receivers have long enjoyed the singular billing as the Big Thing in consumer electronics. Recently, two new display technologies have begun to make some headlines of their own, namely digital light processing ( DLP) and surface-conduction electron-emitter display ( SED) technologies. DLP is a video projection technology that has recently been available as rear projection large-screen domestic television receivers. The technology took decades to become a viable technology for the ever expanding consumer market. It was developed by Larry Hornbeck at Texas Instruments (TI) in the 1970s, perfected in the 80 s and finally introduced to the public in 1996. Since then, DLP TV has started making waves in the fixed-pixel display market by meeting the surging demand for less expensive though no less capable large-screen TVs.
SED uses surface-conduction electron emission to excite a phosphor coating of individual pixels, the same basic concept of the traditional cathode ray tube (CRT).
Central to the DLP display is the digital micromirror device ( DMD) developed by TI. The DMD is a thumbnail-size semiconductor light switch. It consists of an array of millions of microscopic-size mirrors, each mounted on a hinge structure so that it can be individually tilted back and forth. Figure 12.1 shows the basic components of a simple DLP system composed of a light source and a projection lens. Light from the lamp is reflected off the micromirrors and directed towards the projector lens...
