Week 1

Progress Made:

This week I mainly read the user’s guide of DLP Light Crafter named DLP Light Crafter^TM Evaluation Module (EVW) user’s guide. According to this material, I grasp a basic understanding of our tools, like their hardware and software overview. Meanwhile, the objective of Light Crafter is to permit developers to assess TI’s (Texas Instrument’s) DLP Pico platform along with TI’s DaVinci Technology and the DM365 architecture (S1). To begin with, with respect to DLP Pico platform, it is intended to develop DLP Pico Projector. The features of DLP Pico Projector are shown below:

l  Ultra portable and compact

l  Easily connected to nearly any device’s video out port

l  Long lasting solid state LED illumination

l  Astounding picture quality

l  DLP Pico chipset

In the comparison to the third feature, others are readily to be understood. For solid state lighting (SSL), it is a type of lighting which utilises semiconductor light-emitting diodes (LEDs), organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) or polymer light emitting diodes (PLEDs) as sources of illumination rather than electrical filaments, plasma or gas. It has several prominent advantages such as lower energy consumption, longer life time and high efficiency. Furthermore, TI’s DaVinci is a kind of system on a chip family which combines a DSP (Digital Signal Processing) core based on the TMS320 C6000 VLIW  DSP family with an ARM architecture CPU core (S2). Moreover, DaVinci Technology is a signal processing-based solution tailored for digital video applications which supplies video equipment manufacturers with integrated processor, software, tools and support to simplify the design process and accelerate innovation (S2).

Hardware Overview

In addition, the Light Crafter chiefly comprises of three subsystems which are light engine, driver board and system board respectively. Firstly, light engine consists of the optics, red, green and blue LEDs, and the 608 604 diamond pixel 0.3’’ WVGA (Wide Video Graphic Array) DMD (Digital Micromirror Device) (S1). DLP 0.3 WVGA chipset includes two components DLP 3000 that is 0.3 WVGA DMD and DLPC300 which is DLP3000 digital controller (S3). The key features of DLP3000 are displayed below:

l  608 684 micromirror diagonal (608 columns and 684 rows)

l  0.3-inch array diagonal

l  Up to WVGA (854 480) image display

l  7.6um micromirror pitch (Every aluminium micromirror is approximately 7.6um in size. This micromirror is able to be switchable between -12  and 12 )

l  Side illumination for compact optics

The function of DLP3000 is highly efficient, digitally controlled MEMS (Micro-Electromechanical Systems) micromirror array can display binary patterns up to 4000Hz (S3). Additionally, it can be applied to modulate the amplitude and direction of incident light. It also has some benefits, for instance fast and reliable spatial light modulation in a form of factor for lower cost, portable, embedded, and hand-held equipment (S3). Moreover, the key features of DLPC300 are:

l  Pattern rates up to 4000Hz binary, 120 Hz grayscale

l  Output trigger for camera or peripheral synchronization

l  Low power consumption (93mW typical)

The purpose of DLPC300 is to provide a convenient interface for user electronics which assures reliable operation of the DMD. Meanwhile, due to it, developers can control the mircromirrors light sources, and peripherals for high speed and intelligent pattern or video display (S3).

Furthermore, driver board comprises of LED driver circuits, DLPC300 DMD Controller, power management, circuits and MSP430 (S1). System board includes TMS320DM365, FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) and several connectors for external inputs (S1).

Software Overview

The software is on the basis of TI’s DVSDK (Digital Video Software Development Kit) platform (S1). DVSDK is a collection of royalty free software components established on Linux operating system and pre-tested by TI. This section in the user’s guide material is to introduce the simple knowledge about the components of the software and the embedded Linux Kernel. Moreover, it tells users how to install the software on PC. 

Problems and Challenges:

In this week, I merely grasp a basic understanding of Light Crafter. There are numerous areas I ought to study further. For instance, I want to do more research about DLP 0.3 WVGA chipset like its block diagram and how DLPC300 and DLP3000 work together. Furthermore, I should investigate the work principles of DLPC300 and DLP3000. I have difficulties in understanding the figures about micromirror array in the source DLP 0.3 WVGA Series 220 DMD. I should find more materials about these for the sake of grasp them. There are some terminologies I do not understand their significances to the image display, such as grayscale and angular positions, frame rate, bit-plane etc. I should be familiar with using the software about Light Crafter. I should learn how to control the micromirror to obtain the image display we desire. I ought to know the image display requirements for eye testing.

Plans for Next Week:

Next week, on the basis of the knowledge I study this week, I will do further research about them, especially for the micromirror figures. I will investigate their contributions to the final image display. Furthermore, I will do some reading about eye testing. 

Reference:

1, Texas Instruments, DLP LightCrafter Evaluation Module (EVM) User’s Guide, 2013, http://www.ti.com.cn/cn/lit/ug/dlpu006b/dlpu006b.pdf

2, Texas Instrument, DaVinci technology

3, Texas Instruments, DLP 0.3 WVGA Series 220 DMD, http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/dlps022a/dlps022a.pdf