Advanced light-control chipsets – Applications

Produce non-contact, highly accurate 3D data in real-time using programmable structured light patterns. Generate a 3D point cloud by projecting a series of patterns onto an object and capturing the light distortion with a camera or sensor.

The point cloud can be used directly for analysis of the object’s surface area, volume, or feature sizes. It can be exported to a variety of CAD modeling formats.

3D printing allows manufacturers to speed up design cycles, make quicker prototype adjustments, and print production parts.

3D Computer Aided Design (CAD) model of the object is converted into cross-sectional slices that are sent to the 3D printer. DLP technology is used to project image slices continuously or layer by layer to build the object. For DLP stereolithography (SLA) printers, liquid resins are hardened by light exposure. For DLP 3D printer selective laser sintering (SLS) systems, fine powders are fused together by laser thermal energy.  

Digital lithography is used for PCB manufacturing, flat panel display repair, laser marking, and other light exposure systems. In digital lithography, DLP technology provides high speed and high resolution light patterns to expose photoresist films and other photosensitive materials without using contact masks. This reduces material cost, improves production rates, and allows for rapid pattern changes, especially ideal for use cases where fine feature sizes require double patterning.

All molecules have unique responses to different wavelengths of light. Spectroscopy is an analysis technique that uses these unique responses to identify and characterize materials.

In a spectrometer design, the TI DLP Digital Micromirror Device (DMD) can be used as a programmable wavelength selector. Broadband light goes through an optical slit. Then the individual wavelengths of light are dispersed onto the micromirror array using a diffraction grating or prism, allowing subsets of the micromirror array to be mapped to specific wavelengths. Specific wavelengths of light can then be switched to a single-element detector. This powerful design architecture eliminates the need for linear array detectors or motors to generate a spectral scan over a wavelength range, enabling chemical analysis with higher performance and smaller form factors at lower costs.