Fine-pitch, high efficiency spatial optical modulator for mobile display applications

Jong Hyeong Songa, Sang Kyeong Yuna, Hee Yeoun Kima, Seungdo Ana, Heung Woo Parka, Yoon Joon Choia, Victor Yurlova, Anatoliy Lapchuka, Chung Mo Yanga, Sung Jun Leea, Jae Wook Janga, Ki Un Leea, Ki Suk Woob, El M. Bourima a SOM R&D and Biz. Development Group, OS Division, Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Ltd., Suwon, Kyunggi-do, Korea 443-743; b CAE Group, Central R&D Institute, Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Ltd., Suwon, Kyunggi-do, Korea 443-743
ABSTRACT
Diffractive spatial optical modulators (SOM) with fine pitch pixel array were introduced for the mobile applications of laser projection display which requires the small volume, low power consumption and high optical efficiency. Micromechanical designs of piezoelectric (PZT) actuator and mirror ribbon structure were optimized for small volume, but keeping the same level of the other performance. Even though the same design rule and fabrication equipment were used for 10 um pitch SOM and 16 um pitch SOM, the optical efficiency of the fine pitch SOM was 78 % for the 0th order diffraction and is better than that of 16 um pitch SOM (73%). The full on/off contrast ratio has no difference between 10 um pitch and 16 um pitch SOM. All the optical characteristics coincide well with the theoretical estimations. High displacement of 500nm, which is enough to modulate the three Red, Green and Blue colors were achieved by the control of the thicknesses and stresses of constituent structural layers. It was found that the stress of Pt/PZT/Pt actuating layer was the main parameter affecting the initial gap height of the ribbon and also its displacement. For improving the optical properties of the SOM devices, the required ribbon-flatness could be achieved by applying a stress gradient on the SiN layer to compensate for the stress unbalance between Al mirror and SiN supprting layer. The temperature sensitive characteristics of the SOM device, which degrades the image quality, could be minimized by a mechanical compensation method using a thermal expansion effect of Si substrates. This concept could be applied in most of the bridge type MEMS structure. The most critical parameter which limit the SOM device lifetime was found to be the ribbon displacement degradation. By using a temperature accelerating lifetime measurement method based on the displacement degradation the estimated lifetime was more than 4,000 hrs and is of acceptable level in the mobile application. In short, the developed fine pitch SOM device, for making small volume of optical module, has sufficient response time and ribbon displacement for modulating the red, blue and green colors with one SOM chip and is suitable for high quality embedded laser projection displays. Optical module with VGA is successfully demonstrated for its potential applications in mobile laser projection display such as a embed projection cellular phone. Keywords: laser projection display, spatial light modulator, diffraction gratings, piezoelectric, micro-actuators, SOM

1. INTRODUCTION
A mobile projection display is currently one of the main gadgets that can interest wide users. Consumers want to have smaller hand held devices, but prefer larger display image size. Small size and large optical efficiency are the main challenges in technology development of portable projection displays. Recently, the SOM device, the one-dimensional micro-actuation light modulator, is successfully developed by Samsung Electro-Mechanics for an accessory or embedded projection module [1-10]. But the previously developed SOM device, integrated in an optical module, has a volume bigger than 15 cc and entire module is considered to be too big in volume for being embedded in the mobile device. The best way for reducing the volume of optical module is to decrease the pixel pitch of one-dimensional SOM device because it could decrease both the height and lateral area of the optical module. In order to develop a smaller optical module which can be embed in the mobile device, fine pitch SOM device having a 10 um pixel pitch was designed and fabricated. The constraints in designing for the fine pitch SOM was using a same fabrication equipment and design rules

MOEMS and Miniaturized Systems VIII, edited by David L. Dickensheets, Harald Schenk, Wibool Piyawattanametha Proc. of SPIE Vol. 7208, 72080T 2009 SPIE CCC code: 0277-786X/09/$18 doi: 10.1117/12.808892

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which was used for the fabrication of 16 um pitch SOM device without declining of the optical performance like a contrast ratio and efficiency of the SOM module. The reliability of the SOM device was another important aspect in the design of SOM device. In general, MEMS device having an asymmetry structure exhibits temperature dependent characteristics due to the thermal bimorph effect such that the performance of the fabricated device varies with temperature. Especially, SOM device is very sensitive in the change of it ribbon position because it uses the diffraction phenomenon of coherent light. The temperature dependent characteristics and compensation method should be considered in the device design stage. This paper describes the design procedure of fine pitch SOM for proper mechanical and optical performance with reliability issues.

2. FINE PITCH SOM DESIGN AND FABRICATION

2.1 Fine pitch SOM chip design Previously developed SOM chip has 16 um pixel pitch and contains two ribbons per pixel. The MASK design rule was 1 um and it makes possible to use conventional contact aligner for SOM chip fabrication. The total volume of optics combined with 16 um pitch SOM chip was about 15 cc. The detailed optical power modulation principle of the SOM chip and the fabrication process of the 16 um pitch SOM can be found in the previously published paper [4]. The required volume from market side for enabling to embed in the mobile device such as mobile phone was less than 10 cc. To meet the market side volume requirement, the decrease of the SOM pitch was highly required because such decreased SOM pitch enables smaller optics in volume. For the proper design of fine pitch SOM, many design parameters should be considered for fulfilling the mechanical and optical performance such as: (a) optical performance like a efficiency and contrast ratio, (b) ribbon moving distance to handle R/G/B three different colors with single SOM chip, (c) ribbon natural frequency, and (d) fabrication possibility by using a conventional contact aligner process etc. The detailed required mechanical and optical performance parameters/specifications are summarized at the table 1.
Table 1. Required mechanical and optical performances parameters for SOM chip.

Parameters Contrast ratio Efficiency Ribbon displacement Ribbon natural frequency MASK design rule

Specification > 300 > 70 % > 500 nm > 350 kHz 1 um

Remark Full on/off contrast ratio For modulation the light intensity of all R/G/B three colors with one SOM chip Limit the modulation speed of SOM device

We select the SOM pixel pitch to 10 um with one ribbon per pixel for the fine pitch SOM after consideration of process possibility by using a contact aligner, estimation of optics volume and optical performance. Fig.1 shows the difference between previously developed 16 um pixel pitch SOM and newly developed 10 um fine pitch SOM in number of ribbons per pixel schematically. By using one ribbon per pixel structure, it was possible to maintain process design rule to 1 um even though the pixel pitch is decreased from 16 um to 10 um. The effect on the optics performance of the one ribbon per pixel structure will be discussed in the following section.

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Orating Structure with Al Reflectinq Layer

Silicone
oxide

Grating Structure

Silicone Dioxide

Top & Bottom Dectrodes

Si Substrate
SiNx Supporting Layer

Si Gubotrtc

PZT

Pzr
10

40
PZT actuator

16 100

100

(a)

(b)

Fig. 1.The schematic drawing of SOM chip, (a) 16 um pitch with two ribbons pixel SOM, (b) 10 um pitch with one ribbon per pixel SOM

To meet mechanical and optical performance, the thicknesses and stresses of each comprising layer of the ribbon should be selected carefully. In fig.2, the cross-sectional view of the ribbon consisting of SiN supporting layer, Pt and PZT actuating layers, and Al mirror layer are shown. The net stress and stiffness of the ribbon affect the ribbon displacement (moving distance of the ribbon with and without applied bias on the PZT unit) and natural frequency of ribbon. Simple equation governing the ribbon natural frequency under the net ribbon stress is as follows.

1 Fn ( Hz ) = 2

10 2 L

(1)

Where, Fn( Hz) : natural frequency, : tensile stress( N / m 2 ), : density(kg / m 3 ), L : ribbon length . As shown in formula (1), by increasing the net stress level of the ribbon, the natural frequency increase. The ribbon bending in y-direction (notified in fig. 2) at the center of the ribbon was also an important design parameter to optimize. The ribbon which consists of Al layer and SiN structural layer, these two layers having different thickness and stress result in lost of mirror flatness by bending in y-direction after ribbon release. In order to compensate for the mirror bending after ribbon release, the SiN layer was designed to have a stress gradient along the y-direction. Gap-height (the height difference between mirror on ribbon and bottom mirror) temperature dependence was another important design consideration. As shown in fig. 2, the cantilever type PZT actuation part is attached on the SiN bridge structure. This asymmetrical structure along ydirection on both side of the SiN bridge shows temperature dependent characteristics: by increase the ribbon temperature, the gap-height decrease. This temperature dependent characteristic can be substantially minimized by a proper tuning of the ribbon constituent layers.
Optically active ar ea Actuator ar ea

y z x

Al Bot. Pt SiO2

PZT

T op Pt

Si 3 N 4 Poly Si SiO2

Si subs.

Fig. 2. The cross-sectional view of the ribbon comprising SiN supporting layer, Pt and PZT actuating layer, SiO2, and Al mirror layer.

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2.2 Optical performance estimation of fine pitch SOM

The optical performance of the fine pitch SOM need to be carefully estimated because the narrow pitch of SOM device allows only one ribbon per pixel structure and this will inherently have affect on the optical characteristics of SOM system. In order to calculate the contrast ratio and optical efficiency of the SOM device, optimized Schlieren stop was used because each of three primary colors, Red, Green, Blue has a different diffraction angle. This makes it difficult to choose the ideal Schlieren stop position for all three colors and thus limits the contrast ratio of the system. Scalar theory approach was used for theoretical estimation of the influence of these parameters on CR of image [1]. Schlieren stop was introduced in our algorithm by applying truncation function R() in spatial frequency domain.

R( ) = rect 1 + rect + 1

(1)

Where, rect ( x ) is rectangular function, is distance between neighbor diffractive orders of projective lens in Fourier plane for green light (=532nm). R() describes two symmetrically situated slits in Schlieren stop diaphragm of projective lens corresponding to +1st and -1st diffraction orders of SOM used for image projection. For frequency calculation, we approximated sinusoidal frequency signal by rectangular signal with the same period which was created by sequence of group of pixels switched on to maximum brightness and neighbor groups switched off to minimal brightness positions. In the first part of period, all m pixels were in on position and in the second part of period all m pixels were in off position. For the estimation of image quality, we introduced the frequency depending CR as a ratio of power in on pixel group to off pixel group for different spatial frequency (image period):

CRm =
On

On Em

E Off m
Off

(2) is integral of optical

Where, E m is integral of optical intensity over of total area of on group(central area) - E m

intensity over of total area of off group (central part of pixel group). Fig.3 shows the dependence of contrast ratio on spatial frequency: Fm = 1 / (P m); [line/mm] , where P=0.32mm is single pixel size on screen. Here, we assumed that screen size is 150mm in height, 200 mm in width for VGA (480x640 pixels). In Fig. 3, one can see two groups of curves corresponding to one-ribbon-per-pixel SOM (10um pitch, magnification M=32) and two-ribbon-per-pixel SOM (16um pitch, magnification M=20). Each group includes three curves corresponding to red, green and blue color respectively. Contrast has its highest value at low spatial frequency and decreases with the increase of frequency. Especially, one can see a rapid decrease in high special frequency range when image half period is close to one pixel size. The difference between one-ribbon and two-ribbon SOM is pretty small in wide frequency band, except at the highest frequency point as one can expect. The decrease in image contrast with the decrease of image period can be explained by light penetration in black pixels area from the neighboring white area due to the small NA determined by slits size of Schlieren stop.
I IIIIIIi 11111111 IIIIIII IIIIIII IIIIII

I IIIIIP' iiIlI IIIIIlI IIIIIlI 11111

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iiiiiiii iiirfsiiiiiii.iiiiiii.iiiiiii.

flhII IIIIt1ii flhII IIIIuI..-I iiu,..wniiu,..iiiiu,..iiiiu,..iiiiiiu.i iiiii.fl!iiii.iiiiiii.iiiiiii. iiiiiiu.iiiiiiu.piiiiiiiu.iiiiiiu.iiiiiiu.

I IIIIIII IIIIIII IIIIriI IIIIIII 11111

flhII flhII flhII U1J!1JiII IIIIuI..111111..111111..1 IllI!'AI iiiiiii.iiiiiii.iiiiiii.i oiii.i 111,.. iiiii. iiiiiii.iiiiiii.iiiiiii.i i!Xdi iiiiu. iiiiuuiiiiiuuiiiiiuui rii...iiiii... iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii uiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiii iiiiii.iiiiiiitiiiii.iiiiiii.

null null inurnu

ill Hill Hill Iill Ill

2 ribbons per pixel

Contrast ratio

1 ribbon per pixel

11111

Spatial frequency on screen, line/mm Fig. 3. Frequency dependent contrast ratio CR vs. SOM image half-period m for RGB colors respectively.

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ill

Since the ribbons of SOM were created by an etching process, each ribbon has optically dead area of ~0.1um width due to the etching slope. Almost all energy reflected from the slope will be reflected with large angle and becomes an optical loss for projector. Without taking into account these slopes, the two SOM structure in all pixels on and in off mode are the same and therefore should have the same contrast and optical efficiency. However, since the mirror with smaller pitches (16 um SOM) have relatively larger area of etching slopes, the fine pitch SOM (10 um pitch, one ribbon per pixel) is expected to have a better optical efficiency. The Table 2 shows efficiency of two SOM structures for 0th and 1st diffractive working mode regime.
Table 2. Efficiency comparison between 16 um pitch and 10 um pitch SOM

Operating mode 0th order 1st orders

Fine pitch SOM (10um pitch) Ribbon bending (nm) Efficiency (%) 5 81.3 74

Previous SOM (16um pitch) Ribbon bending (nm) Efficiency (%) 50 74.1 71.6

The data in Table 2 are obtained for ribbon slopes 0.2 um (0.1 um each side), aluminum reflectivity about 92 %, wavelength 532nm, gap height: 1.64 um and 1.50 um for zero and first orders regimes respectively. Random nonuniformity of neighbor ribbon gap height and micro-roughness of ribbon surface as well as micro-defects have been ignored. We also ignored such small effects as: finite incident numerical aperture, dispersion effect and finite spectral band width of laser radiation.
2.3 SOM chip Module fabrication

The well known surface micromachining technology was used for the SOM device fabrication. The starting substrate was a silicon wafer, a buried oxide layer as an etch stop layer, and a deposited poly silicon layer, which was used as a sacrificial layer. To support the grating micro-mirror structures, a tensile stressed low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) grown SiN layer was deposited. A PZT thin film with a 400nm thickness was then deposited by sol-gel technique. Sputtered platinum was used as top and bottom electrodes. Aluminum reflecting layer was fabricated by liftoff process. Finally, the sacrificial layer was etched out by using a XeF2 gas to release the SOM ribbon structure. Packaging of the SOM is an integration of SOM chip, driver ICs and connectors onto the glass sub-mount. The dedicated SOM driver ICs were exclusively developed to optimize the driving signals, which were flip-chip bonded with a SOM chip on the glass sub-mount by chip-on-glass (COG) technique. Detailed fabrication process of the SOM chip module can be found on the previously published report. [4]

3. PERFORMANCE
3.1 Mechanical performance of SOM chip module

The ribbon gap height and displacement were measured after finishing SOM chip fabrication and PKG. The internally developed measurement system which utilizes the diffracted R/G/B laser intensity profile depending on the applied bias on the PZT actuator was used for measurement of gap-height and displacement of ribbon. The gap-height dependence on the Pt/PZT/Pt stack stress is shown in fig. 4(a). Each data point corresponds to the Pt/PZT/Pt stress of the wafer and measured average gap height of the SOM modules fabricated from that wafer. Our experimental results indicates that the Pt/PZT/Pt stress was the most critical parameter among other parameters such as thickness and stress of SiN, SiO2, and Al layers. Fig. 4(a) shows the gap-height increases with the increase of Pt/PZT/PT tensile stress increase. When the Pt/PZT/Pt stress varied intentionally or unintentionally in the range of 100 MPa (from 350 to 450 MPa), the gap height varied about 350 nm. The relation between gap height and displacement of the SOM modules fabricated from typical non-uniform wafer is shown in fig. 4(b). The ribbon displacement decreases with the increase of gap height. If we assume that the origin of gap height non- uniformity within wafer is related on Pt/PZT/Pt stress non- uniformity as shown in fig 4(a), larger gap height attributed to larger Pt/PZT/Pt stress (i.e, larger ribbon net tensile stress) resulted in small displacement. If we consider the gap height and displacement specification of SOM ribbon which are derived from the optical requirement of SOM devices (not shown in this paper), the Pt/PZT/Pt stress level variation should not extend in the range over 50 MPa.

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1800 1700

600

Gap Heig ht ( nm ) '

1600 1500 1400 1300 1200 1100 1000 900 300

Dis p la c em en t ( n m )
400 450 500

y = 3.514x + 11.788 2 R = 0.7514

580 560 540 520 500 480 460 440 420

350

400 1250

1300

1350

1400

1450

1500

1550

1600

Pt / PZT/ Pt St res s ( Mpa)

Gap- Height ( nm)

(a)

(b)

Fig. 4.(a) The gap-height dependence on the Pt/PZT/Pt stress. Each data point corresponds to the Pt/PZT/Pt stack stress of the wafer and measured average gap height of the SOM modules fabricated from that wafer, (b) the relation between gap height and displacement of the SOM modules fabricated from typical non-uniform.

Bending of ribbon along the bridged ribbon ends or longitudinal ribbon deflection in y-direction (as shown in cross section of ribbon surface profiles) degrades the optical performance such an optical efficiency and contrast ratio. Estimated specification relative to the longitudinal ribbon bending, which could meet optical performance of SOM module was less than 10 nm. When the SOM ribbon was fabricated and was released, the typical bending shape of ribbon is shown in fig. 5(a). After the relaxation of stress in Al layer at about 300 oC during PKG process, the tensile stress is developed in Al layer due to the mismatch of thermal expansion coefficient between Al and SiN layers. In order to compensate for the concave shape of ribbon bending, the modified structure was introduced as shown in fig 5(b). In this modified structure, the SiN layer was preceded into two contiguous layers having different stresses and thicknesses. Combined with Al layer and unbalanced stresses of two SiN layers resulted in minimized ribbon bending. Bending level of ~50 um for the conventional ribbon reduced to ~5 nm for the modified structure.
Al layer Al layer

SiNy: 100 Mpa, 4000 A

SiNy: 100 Mpa, 3800 A SiNy: 400 Mpa, 200 A

(a)

(b)

Fig. 5.(a) Schematic drawing of ribbon structure having conventional Al/SiN and bending structure after release and PKG, (b) modified ribbon structure for compensating the ribbon bending.

As shown in fig.2, the SOM ribbon has an asymmetrical thermo-mechanical structure along with its thickness, thus was subjected to manifest temperature dependences by decreasing its gap height as temperature increases. In general, the temperature dependence of the MEMS structure gives harmful effect including SOM device. The ribbon gap height of SOM should be precisely controlled regardless of temperature change, because 1 nm change in gap height produces as effect about 2 gray shifts at 8 bit brightness control. The temperature dependence of gap height for the 16 um SOM chip was about -3 nm/oC and it could be minimized by introducing the stable point of ribbon position concept combined with thermal expansion effect of Si substrate. The stable position concept using the finite element method (FEM) simulation results is shown in fig. 6(a). Three different lines represent three different ribbon designs having different gap height. By increasing the net tensile stress of the ribbon which simulates thermal expansion of the Si substrates the ribbon gap height tends to stabilized. Depending on the initial position of the ribbon, the gap height shift direction brought by increased tensile stress of the ribbon is different. With the consideration that the negative temperature dependence of gap height, it is estimated that the net temperature dependence of the ribbon gap height could be minimized when the low initial gap height design, (c) line of fig. 6(a), is selected. In the case, the negative temperature dependence of gap height

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can be compensated by positive gap height dependence brought about by thermal expansion of substrate. The experimental result shown in fig. 6(b) clearly indicates the temperature dependence of gap height on the initial gap height of the ribbon. With the modified design (low gap height design), the measured temperature dependence was less than -2 nm/oC. The design concept using the substrates thermal expansion effect for minimizing the temperature dependence of the gap height could be applied to the most bridge typed MEMS devices.

1600
No rm alized Gap Heig ht ( 1/ o C)

0.0

Gap Height (nm )

(a)
1400

500

1000

1500

- 2.0 - 4.0 - 6.0 - 8.0 - 10.0 - 12.0 y = - 3E- 06x + 0.0009x - 2.9581 2 R = 0.8741
2

(b) (c)

1200

1000 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

Ribbon net tensile force (uN)

Initial Gap Height ( nm)

(a)

(b)

Fig. 6.(a) FEM simulation result of ribbon gap height depending on the ribbon net tensile force. (b) Normalized temperature dependence of the gap height (: gap height temperature dependence divided by ribbon moving distance, 1/oC) depending on the initial ribbon gap height.

The remaining temperature dependence of gap height and the other temperature dependent parameter such as wavelength shift of Red LDs should be compensated using the closed loop control for the precise control of the gray level.
3.2 Optical performance of SOM chip module

The measured zero diffraction order efficiency for the 16 um pitch SOM was 73 % in average but for the fine pitch SOM it was 78 % in average approaching the theoretical value estimated from the previous section. The measured full on/off contrast ratio was 300 in average but the data spread in wide range from 100 to 1,000. It was attributed to the reflection from the cover glass of the SOM chip module and deviation from the optimum ridge/hole ratio (: the ratio of ribbon width to hole width). It was difficult to find any contrast ratio differences statistically between 16 um pitch and 10 um pitch SOM and contrast ratio were the same as theoretically estimated results. Contrast ratio at the high frequency image was evaluated by MTF measurement. The EIA resolution chart 1965 image displayed on the 10 inch screen was used for measurement of MTF. The result shows that both 16 um and 10 um pitch SOM have VGA resolution as expected.

4. RELIABILITY
The advantages of using piezoelectric transducers for MEMS devices include low energy loss, fast response, low operating voltage, and good signal-to-noise ratio in comparison with other operational principles such as the electrostatic, electromagnetic, and thermal conversion. But besides, the SOM device based on the piezoelectric actuator suffers from loss of polarization (: retention) or creep phenomenon (: additional deformation drift with time). Fig. 7 shows the change of initial gap height and degradation of displacement during actuation with 10V driving voltage with 90/10 duty ratio. It shows a continuous increase of gap height accompanied with a continuous decrease of displacement except at the early operation time stage. Consequently, such non controlled shift behavior in gap height and displacement are one of the sources of image blurring and decrease the SOM device reliability. The decrease of displacement is attributed to the device micromechanical structure effects, partially on both, the change of PZT electromechanical properties, and change of ribbon stiffness. Thus, the mechanical stress established in the SOM device components after the system release are the most probable mechanism controlling the gap height drift increase and the consequent decrease of the displacement as shown in fig. 4(b).

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1310 1308 1306

500

D isp la c em ent (nm ) '

480 440 420 400 380 360

Gap Height (nm) Displacement (nm)

550 545 540 535 530 525 520 515 18 510 0 6 9

y = - 4.6475Ln(x) + 539.04 R2 = 0.8086
Displacement (nm)

460

Gap Height (nm)

1304 1302 1300 1298 1296 1294 1292 1290 0 250 500 750 1000 1250

340 320 300

1500

Time (sec)

Time (Day)

(a)

(b)

Fig. 7 Time dependent behavior of gap height and displacement during 10V driving actuation with 90/10 duty ratio, (a) short term (1250 sec) measurement result, and (b) long term (35 days) measurement result

Small amount of shift in gap height and displacement could be compensated by using the closed loop feedback control, but it can not be compensated if the displacement of ribbon after degradation is smaller than the required displacement level. The SOM device is designed to have a displacement margin about 50 nm. This is assessed with consideration including the requirement for high operation speed. Hence, if the displacement degradation is bigger than the 50 nm, the device becomes non compensable. Above experimental results indicate that the most critical parameter for the SOM lifetime estimation is the degradation of ribbon displacement. For the measurement of lifetime, the device was actuated under driving voltages 11V assuring a normal polarization saturation condition of PZT driving unit, and using an actuation frequency required for a normal condition of image animation. From the collected data and the criterion B10 life based on the time by which 10% of decrease of the initial displacement the device will get failed, the optimal life time was predicted from the analysis in Mean Time to Failure (MTTF) using Minitab soft ware. The life time measurement with temperature range from 50 to 110 oC, estimated MTTF of SOM ribbon was longer than 4,000 hrs.

5. CONCLUSION
Diffractive spatial optical modulators (SOM) with fine pitch pixel array were developed for the mobile applications of laser projection display which requires the small volume and high optical efficiency. The developed SOM device shows suitable characteristics for high quality embedded laser projection displays. The optical efficiency of the fine pitch SOM was 78 % for the 0th order diffraction and is better than that of 16 um pitch SOM (73%). The contrast ratio has no difference between 10 um pitch and 16 um pitch SOM. Following items were developed or applied during the design or fabrication stage of the device development; High displacement of 500nm enough to modulate the three colors was achieved by controlling the thickness and stress of PZT, SiOx and SiN constituting of device structural layer. The stress of Pt/PZT/Pt actuating layer was the main parameter controlling the gap height of the ribbon and had also an influence on the ribbon displacement. For improving the optical properties of the SOM devices, the required flatness could be achieved by introducing the stress gradient on the SiN layer to compensate for the stress unbalance between Al mirror and SiN structural layers. The temperature sensitive characteristics of the SOM device, which degrade the image quality, could be decreased by mechanical compensation method using a thermal expansion effect of Si substrates. The most critical parameter which limit the SOM device lifetime was found to be related to the ribbon displacement degradation. The estimated lifetime by using a temperature accelerating lifetime measurement method based on the displacement degradation was longer than 4,000 hrs.

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REFERENCES
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

S.K. Yun et al., A novel diffractive micro-optical modulator for mobile projection display applications, Proc. SPIE 6887, 688702 (2008) Sang Kyeong Yun et al., Spatial Optical Modulator (SOM) : Samsungs Light Modulator for the Next Generation Laser Display, IMID/IDMC 06 Digest, Invited & Best Paper Award, 551-555 (2006) SangKyeong Yun et al., Spatial optical modulator (SOM): high density diffractive laser projection display, Proc. SPIE 6487, 648710-1~10 (2007) Sang Kyeong Yun et al., Design and Image Processing of Novel Diffractive Optical Modulator for Embedded Mobile Display Applications, 7th CLEO/Pacific Rim, Invited, TuE1-2 (2007) Sang Kyeong Yun et al., Spatial optical modulator (SOM) : Samsungs light modulator for next-generation laser display, J. of the SID, vol. 15, No. 5, 1-13 (2007) Victor Yurlov et al., Speckle suppression in scanning laser display, Applied Optics, Vol. 47, Issue 2, 179-187 (2008) Heung Woo Park et al., Fine-pitch MOEMS packaging for novel Spatial Light Modulator, Electronic Components and Technology Conferences, 58th ECTC, 773-778 (2008) Sang K. Yun et al., Projection Image Modulation of a Novel Diffractive Optical MEMS Device, SID Mobile Displays Workshop (2008) Victor Yurlov et al., Speckle suppression in scanning laser displays : aberration and defocusing of the projection system, Applied Optics, Vol. 48, No. 1, 80~90 (2009) Seungdo An et al., Speckle suppression in laser display using several partially coherent beams, Optics Express, Vol. 17, No. 1, 92-103 (2009)

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