DLP Technology by Texas Instruments Storms the Market
by admin ~ June 26th, 2008. Filed under: HDTV.Digital Light Processing (DLP), is a new technology that is sure to be a dominant force in the television industry in the future. Developed by Texas Instruments’ Dr. Larry Hornbeck in 1987, it uses a semiconductor chip TI refers to as the "world’s most sophisticated light switch" that contains 2 million microscopic hinged-mirrors.
These are referred to as Digital Micromirror Devices (DMD’s) that enable them to tilt towards a light source, or away from it, creating a light or dark pixel image on the projection surface. Each DLP can reflect shades of gray in 1024 variations up to several thousand times per second. The color wheel can produce no less than 16.7 million colors and millions of pixels.
Pixels Define "Definition"
White light passes through a color filter, causing red, green, blue and even additional primary colors such as yellow cyan, magenta and more to be shone sequentially on the surface of the DLP chip. The switching of the mirrors, and time they are ‘on’ or ‘off’ is coordinated according to the color shining on them.
The colors then blend to create a full-color image projected on the screen. TI also has a 3-chip system where white light generated by the lamp passes through a prism that divides it into red, green and blue. Each chip is dedicated to one of the three colors.
The colored light that the micromirrors reflect is then combined and passes through a lens to form an image. Hewlett Packard is working on a DMD process to produce two pixels for each one reproduced, so look for further improvements in DLP technology.
DLP HDTV is also price-competitive with flat plasma or even LCD Tv units, so you’ll be able to enjoy your favorite action movies and sports programming with definition that makes it almost real.
The contrast is not yet what TI hopes it will be in the future, and will no doubt be the improvement TI focuses on in the future as the new semiconductor revolutionizes the HDTV market.
Among the entries in the DLP HDTV market to date, you may want to consider the Samsung fifty-six inch model HLR 5667W which retails between $1600 to $2700.
