DIGITAL-TO-ANALOG IMAGE CONVERSION WITH AN OPTICALLY ADDRESSED SPATIAL LIGHT-MODULATOR

The possibility of using ferroelectric liquid-crystal optically addres sed spatial light modulators to transfer images from silicon backplane devices is investigated. We propose a drive scheme for optically addr essed spatial light modulators to perform digital-to-analog image conv ersion based on the speed performances of current and future silicon b ackplane devices and on temporal averaging. The validity of the drive scheme is experimentally demonstrated with a LED used to encode the gr ay levels, and we discuss the performance of the display system. (C) 1 997 Optical Society of America.