A personal retrospective on the development of the DLP and related spinoffs

Robert W. Cohn

doi:10.1117/12.3004228

13 March 2024 A personal retrospective on the development of the DLP and related spinoffs

Robert W. Cohn

Proceedings Volume 12900, Emerging Digital Micromirror Device Based Systems and Applications XVI; 1290008 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3004228
Event: SPIE OPTO, 2024, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

In 1985 I joined Texas Instruments’ (TI’s) Deformable Mirror Device (DMD) group to develop applications of the cantilever device in coherent optical signal processing. At that time I witnessed the “aha discovery” that led to the invention of the DLP. It is interesting to consider the many years of effort that led Larry Hornbeck to this commercially successful implementation, not just the technology, but the efforts to sustain the project through sponsored R&D. While TI viewed the only sustainable market as (incoherent) display applications, the DMD group sustained the effort with DoD funding for coherent and incoherent optical signal processing systems, including matched filter correlators, digital optical switches, optical crossbar switches and related neural network processors. For coherent signal processing the need for a 2π phase-only (piston-motion pixel) spatial light modulator (SLM) was readily apparent to the sponsors. While TI saw little commercial justification for the phase-only device, this need inspired me around 1991 to develop a new class of real-time computer-generated holography algorithms referred to a pseudorandom encoding, in which each phase-only pixel is encoded with a desired magnitude and phase. The optical Fourier transforms of the modulation enabled my developments of multi-spot object targeting and laser tweezer systems. Around 2005 I began using Digital Light Processing (DLP) developer kits in place of scanners to time-share images with a small number of detectors. One system using a single, high sensitivity detector together with well-chosen DLP frames quickly forms a “partial image” of a point-like scene objects – arguably, an early version of compressive sensing. This paper concludes with recommendations on optimizing the performance and applications of, and potential markets for TI’s recently demonstrated phase-only DLP.

Conference Presentation

(2024) Published by SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Citation Download Citation

Robert W. Cohn "A personal retrospective on the development of the DLP and related spinoffs", Proc. SPIE 12900, Emerging Digital Micromirror Device Based Systems and Applications XVI, 1290008 (13 March 2024); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3004228

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