Technology, Books and Other Neat Stuff

Ever wondered what's inside a DLP video projector? The key component is a chip that contains a host of micromachines tilting an array of tiny aluminium mirrors (bugshaw will be able to explain it far better than me!).

marypcb went to a launch yesterday of LG's new home DLP system, and came back with this sample Texas Instruments mirror array. So I stuck it in the scanner...



The sealed vacuum casing solders onto a circuit board (there's a lovely pad grid array underneath, if you like that sort of thing), and under the big glass window is the mirror array chip. It's all surprisingly small. It's a pity that the scan of the chip can't show just how good the mirror is, expecially when you consider just how many thousands of elements go to making it up.