MOEMS

Micro-opto-electomechanical systems
reflection or deflection,diffraction,refraction,fringing and polarization Electronics- processing of electrical signals Mechanics- movement and actuation of physical parts, could be in linear and rotary motion
Optics-

Advantages of MOEMS
Insensitive to electromagnetic interference y Accuracy y Can be used in harsh enviorment y Mass production capability hence low manufacturing costs
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GRATING LIGHT VALVE(GLV)

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GLV technology works on the principle of

diffraction.
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Used in image display applications . It acts as a dynamic tunable grating to precisely vary the amount of laser light that is diffracted or reflected.

A Grating Light Valve (GLV) consists of parallel rows of reflective membrane type micro-ribbons.

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The ribbons are rigidly mounted on the base at the longitudinal ends and are placed equidistantly. Ribbons suspended over thin air gap, which exist b/w silicon wafer and the ribbons.

Length of ribbon approx. 20m

airgap is 1300 armstrong

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The width of the ribbon is called pitch and it is approx. 5m The entire GLV device is designed to be built using mainstream IC fabrication technology (e.g. photolithographic masking, deposition, etching, metalization, etc.) to create the GLV device. The GLV ribbons are built using silicon nitride, then coated with a very thin layer of aluminum.

By making the aluminum layer very thin, one avoids some of the surface roughness that otherwise scatters the light reducing the contrast ratio, the coating also behaves as conductor.

Fundamental concept:concept:y

Normally all the ribbons are flat & straight. When all the ribbons are flat the device is said to be in the reflective mode. Applying electric voltages can pull the ribbons vertically down relative to underlying surface. Alternate rows of ribbons can be pulled down approximately one-quarter wavelength to create diffraction effects on incident light. When all the ribbons are in the same plane, incident light is reflected from their surfaces. By blocking light that returns along the same path as the incident light,

this state of the ribbons produces a dark spot in a viewing system. y When the (alternate) movable ribbons are pulled down, however, diffraction produces light at an angle that is different from that of the incident light. Unblocked, this light produces a bright spot in a viewing system.

Since the deflection and the pitch of the ribbons are in the order of wavelength of the incident light, the reflected light will see the slit in the front and will bend that depending on the amount of ribbon deflection and the width of the ribbon. The desired angle at which certain wavelength and therefore colors of light to be collected is achieved by varying the pitch(the slit aperture) and the degree of pull down of the ribbons.

Applying the GLV technology

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The input signal is first formatted in terms of converting it into a coded digital signal. The signal is then fed to a digital driver, which is interfaced directly with the GLV device. For black and white display the pitch of all the ribbons are same, but for colour display three types of ribbons with different width are needed. Width of ribbon wavelength of the light red > green > blue The light falls on the GLV; it then gets diffracted divinding into three components (RGB) and travels in parallel towards the display screen.

By using different spacing between ribbons, one can create color-oriented sub-pixels.

Seven components for the arrangement of image display

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White light source Lens( two numbers) RGB color wheel Digital driver Turning mirror Screen GLV device

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The up and down ribbon switching occurs very quickly. The GLV device described here switches in 20 nanoseconds. That is roughly a million times faster than conventional LCD display devices, and about 1000 times faster than another light-valve technology (i.e. Texas Instruments DMD micromirror technology). The reasons for the high speed are the small size and mass, and small excursion, of the GLV ribbons.