Fast ferroelectric-liquid-crystal spatial light modulator with silicon-integrated-circuit active backplane

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Abstract
The fabrication of ferroelectric-liquid-crystal (FLC) light modulators directly atop silicon integrated-circuit (IC) active backplanes makes possible a new family of spatial light modulators (SLMs). Both FLC and IC characteristics play a role in determining the hybrid SLM''s performance capabilities. Total element number is limited to about 1000 x 1000 by current VLSI resolution and die-size constraints. SLM frame times are limited to about 100 microns by FLC response times for element numbers below about 256 x 256 and by IC power dissipation and electronic interconnect bandwidth above that size. Corrugations on the IC surface produced by the VLSI processing can cause severe intrapixel optical wavefront nonuniformity, but elements on the prototypes whose reflectors are restricted to circuitry-free regions have peak-to-valley roughness of less than 0.1 micron across a single pixel. Standard silicon foundry IC dies yielded SLMs flat to about a quarter-wave at 546 nm across a 5-mm aperture.

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