This white paper will discuss Texas Instruments (TI) SmoothPicture technology. A diamond grid Digital Micromirror Device (DMD) is coupled with an optical actuator to produce smooth, film-like picture in a DLP technology-based rear projection display system while revealing the entire resolution of the input image.
Introduction
Over the past five years, DLP technology has made significant progress in the rear
projection television market.
First generation DLP TVs used an HD1 1280x720 pixel DMD and demonstrated the feasibility of applying the DMD in rear projection televisions. These first DLP televisions featured outstanding image quality, albeit at a premium price. TI's second generation HD2 chipset, introduced in 2002, improved overall image quality beyond that of HD1 and enabled substantially reduced system costs, moving DLP high definition TVs into a regime of mainstream affordability.
TI's goals for its 3rd generation chipsets were to continue to drive to higher image quality and resolution while simultaneously making system costs even more affordable. Development of the third generation chipset and TI's SmoothPicture technology has allowed realization of these goals.
The Diamond Array DMD
With the first two generations of DMDs, TI used an orthogonal pixel array to generate a
1280x720 image. The orthogonal array used a 1:1 image pixel to mirror display ratio. This means that each mirror was dedicated to displaying one image pixel on the display
device (see Figure 1).
In order to realize program goals of creating higher resolution devices while simultaneously decreasing system costs, TI developed an innovative new DMD. This new DMD utilizes an offset diamond pixel layout utilizing mirrors which are rotated 45 degrees with respect to those in an orthogonal DMD (see Figure 2).
