Appeal No. 1997-1374
Application No. 08/415,101
The invention relates to grouping spatial light modulator
elements (SLM’s) in an ordinal format to form picture elements
in a cardinal format. In particular, referring to Figure 17,
SLM elements of the digital micromirror device (DMD) type are
arranged in an ordinal format. That is, a row of DMD
elements, e.g. 59, 61, are arranged directly above DMD
elements of an adjacent row, e.g. 63 and 65. The DMD’s are
grouped to form sub-arrays, e.g. sub-arrays 58, 60, 62, 64,
and these sub-arrays are arranged in a cardinal format. That
is, a staggered format wherein a sub-array in one row, e.g.
sub-array 58, is aligned between two sub-arrays of an adjacent
row, e.g. sub-arrays
62 and 64. Thus, Appellants indicate, the reduced
efficiencies inherent in physically constructing a cardinal
format are avoided by physical construction in ordinal format,
while obtaining the better horizontal resolution by grouping
and operating sub-arrays in the cardinal format.
Representative independent claim 1 is reproduced as
follows
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