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DLP® technology is a revolutionary display solution that uses an optical semiconductor to manipulate light digitally. It is a highly reliable, all-digital display chip that delivers the best picture across a broad range of products, including large screen digital TVs, and projectors for business, home, professional venue and digital cinema (DLP Cinema®). It's also a dependable technology used by leading display electronics companies worldwide, with more than 10 million systems shipped to more than 75 manufacturers since 1996.
DLP® technology is in use wherever visual excellence is in demand. It is also a highly versatile display technology. It is the only display technology on the market that can enable the world's smallest projectors under 2-lbs., and light up the largest movie screens up to 75 feet.
The result is maximum fidelity: a picture whose clarity, brilliance and color must be seen to be believed. See a Demonstration of DLP
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1.
THE SEMICONDUCTOR THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
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At the heart of every DLP® projection system is an optical semiconductor known as the Digital Micromirror Device,
or DLP® chip, which was invented by Dr. Larry Hornbeck of Texas Instruments in 1987.
The DLP® chip is probably the world's most sophisticated light switch. It contains a rectangular array of
up to 2 million hinge-mounted microscopic mirrors; each of these micromirrors measures less than one-fifth
the width of a human hair.
When a DLP® chip is coordinated with a digital video or graphic signal, a light source, and a projection lens,
its mirrors can reflect an all-digital image onto a screen or other surface. The DLP® chip and the sophisticated
electronics that surround it are what we call Digital Light Processing™ technology.
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2.
DIGITAL LIGHT PROCESSING I: THE GRAYSCALE IMAGE |
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A DLP® chip's micromirrors are mounted on tiny hinges that enable them to tilt either toward the light
source in a DLP® projection system (ON) or away from it (OFF)-creating a light or dark pixel on the projection surface.
The bit-streamed image code entering the semiconductor directs each mirror to switch on and off up to
several thousand times per second. When a mirror is switched on more frequently than off, it reflects a
light gray pixel; a mirror that's switched off more frequently reflects a darker gray pixel.
In this way, the mirrors in a DLP® projection system can reflect pixels in up to 1,024 shades of gray to
convert the video or graphic signal entering the DLP® chip into a highly detailed grayscale image.
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3.
DIGITAL LIGHT PROCESSING II: ADDING COLOR |
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The white light generated by the lamp in a DLP® projection system passes through a color wheel as it travels
to the surface of the DLP® chip. The color wheel filters the light into red, green, and blue, from which a
single-chip DLP® projection system can create at least 16.7 million colors. And the 3-chip system found
in DLP Cinema® projection systems is capable of producing no fewer than 35 trillion colors.
The on and off states of each micromirror are coordinated with these three basic building blocks of color.
For example, a mirror responsible for projecting a purple pixel will only reflect red and blue light to the
projection surface; our eyes then blend these rapidly alternating flashes to see the intended hue in a projected image.
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4.
APPLICATIONS AND CONFIGURATIONS |
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1-CHIP DLP® PROJECTION SYSTEM
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Televisions, home theater systems and business projectors using DLP® technology rely on a
single chip configuration like the one described above.
White light passes through a color wheel filter, causing red, green and blue light to be shone in sequence on the surface of the DLP® chip. The switching of the mirrors, and the proportion of time they are 'on' or 'off' is coordinated according to the color shining on them. The human visual system integrates the sequential color and sees a full-color image.
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3-CHIP DLP® PROJECTION SYSTEM
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DLP® technology-enabled projectors for very high image quality or very high brightness applications such as cinema and large venue displays rely on a 3-chip configuration to produce stunning images, whether moving or still.
In a 3-chip system, the white light generated by the lamp passes through a prism that divides it into red, green and blue. Each DLP® chip is dedicated to one of these three colors; the colored light that the micromirrors reflect is then combined and passed through the projection lens to form an image.
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Visit a store near you for more details, or find out more on our
Expert Advice pages. 
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