A planarized LCOS display for projection applications

Abstract

Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCOS) spatial light modulators (SLM’s) and microdisplays are made by placing a thin layer of liquid crystal directly on top of a silicon chip. We have constructed a high speed 256 by 256 binary SLM which uses a ferroelectric liquid crystal as the light modulating layer [1]. We have also recently constructed a high speed distorted helix effect analog 128 by 128 SLM [2] and a high voltage 128 by 128 analog SLM using the electroclinic effect in BDH764E [3]. This work has been motivated by the performance requirements of coherent applications which typically include high frame rate, small pixel pitch and good diffraction efficiency into a single (zeroth) diffracted order. These devices have been sucessfully used in optical correlators and holographic interconnect systems [4].