METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR USING AN ARRAY OF GRATING LIGHT VALVES TO PRODUCE MULTICOLOR OPTICAL IMAGES

摘要

A multicolor optical image-generating device comprised of an array of gratinglight valves (GLVs) organized to form light-modulatingpixel units for spatially modulating incident rays of light. The pixel unitsare comprised of three subpixel components each including aplurality of elongated, equally spaced apart reflective grating elementsarranged parallel to each other with their light-reflective surfacesalso parallel to each other. Each subpixel component includes means forsupporting the grating elements in relation to one another, andmeans for moving alternate elements relative to the other elements and betweena first configuration wherein the component acts to reflectincident rays of light as a plane mirror, and a second configuration whereinthe component diffracts the incident rays of light as they arereflected from the grating elements. The three subpixel components of eachpixel unit are designed such that when red, green and bluelight sources are trained on the array, colored light diffracted by particularsubpixel components operating in the second configuration willbe directed through a viewing aperture, and light simply reflected fromparticular subpixel components operating in the first configurationwill not be directed through the viewing aperture.