Two-dimensional optical analysis of small pixels in reflective silicon microdisplay

We present a two-dimensional optical analysis of small pixels in reflective liquid-crystal-on-silicon microdisplay. The optical analysis is divided in to two parts. In the first part, the two-dimensional (2D) director configur ation of the liquid crystal display (LCD) in rectangular mesh was calculate d by simultaneously solving the 2D Poisson and continuum theory equations. In the second part, generalized Jones matrix was used to simulate for optic al reflectance through the LCD with the 2D director configuration obtained from the first part. This optical modeling was applied to analyze optical r eflectance of small pixels in reflective mixed-mode twisted nematic and bir efrigence (MTB) cells on silicon substrate. Both the simulated and experime ntal data of the MTB cells under frame and column inversions were presented . It was found that the frame inversion could give rise to a higher contras t ratio than the column inversion at the same driving voltage. It was also found that the optical reflectance decreased as the pixel size decreased du e to the lateral electric field between the small pixels.