Pursuing High Quality Phase-Only Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) Devices

Abstract

Fine pixel size and high-resolution liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) backplanes have been developed by various companies and research groups since 1973. The development of LCoS is not only beneficial for full high definition displays but also to spatial light modulation. The high-quality and well-calibrated panels can project computer generated hologram (CGH) designs faithfully for phase-only holography, which can be widely utilized in 2D/3D holographic video projectors and components for optical telecommunications. As a result, we start by summarizing the current status of high-resolution panels, followed by addressing issues related to the driving frequency (i.e., liquid crystal response time and hardware interface). LCoS panel qualities were evaluated based on the following four characteristics: phase linearity control, phase precision, phase stability, and phase accuracy.A phase-only spatial light modulator can be used as a key optical element for displays, adaptive optics for sensing, lithography, and telecommunication, as shown in Figure 2. The linearity of phase modulation, response time, phase precision, and phase stability are key characteristics for appraising or selecting phase-only LCoS-SLM panels for the applications designed. However, it is difficult to obtain a single LCoS possessing all the desired features for all applications. Their specification and performance optimization are application-driven. For example, response time is the current limitation in a holographic display. It may be more important than phase stability,

66‐3: Submillisecond‐Response 10‐Megapixel 4K2K LCoS for Microdisplay and Spatial Light Modulator

“…High pixel density (~7000 ppi) 4K2K LCoS IC backplane suffers from low driving voltage (<3.3 V) limitations. The recently reported fast response time LCoS with PCM-2-01, L1, MCRI or UCF-L1 also requires at least 4~6 V driving voltage [22][23][24][25][26]. In this paper, we revealed a novel 1.2-inch 4K2K TN amplitude-type LCoS microdisplay (PCU-3-02-MD) with 1-ms RT under 5.0 V for displays.…”

Special Issue on Liquid Crystal on Silicon Devices: Modeling and Advanced Spatial Light Modulation Applications

“…A complete review of LCoS origins, evolution, and applications is given by Chen et al [7]. They cover both the interest in display applications and their developments as spatial light modulators (SLM), with special focus on phase-only spatial light modulation capabilities in digital holography or holographic video projection.…”

A Hybrid Algorithm for Multi-Beam Steering of LCOS-Based Wavelength Selective Switch

“…The LCOS-SLM, an array of electro-optic cells independently addressed by very large scale integrated circuits (VLSI) can steer a single or multiple wavelengths along arbitrary multi-directions with given power ratio simultaneously by uploading a designed phase-only digital diffraction grating hologram onto an LCOS-chip [5]. Since an LCOS is capable of resolving 256 discrete phase levels with a maximum modulation of 2π , the final phase hologram is actually an array of different grey levels in range of 0 to 255.…”