Digital Light Processing™, or DLP™ technology is an all-digital technology used to project and display images. Invented by
Texas Instruments, DLP™ technology is based on an optical semiconductor called the Digital Micromirror Device, or DMD.
Digital Light Processing™ technology is based on the Digital Micromirror Device, or DMD, an optical switch semiconductor. The
DMD is comprised of a standard memory cell on top of which is mounted a rectangular array of more than a million hinged,
microscopic mirrors.
In a DLP™ projection system, red, green, and blue light is shone alternately onto the DMD mirrors, which switch on and off in
response to a video or graphics signal being fed into the underlying memory chip. The mirrors can switch at a rate of up to 5,000
times per second; the light they reflect is directed through a lens and onto the screen, creating an image.
In projectors for high brightness applications, three DMDs are used-one each for green, red, and blue. Light from the lamp is split
by a prism into these three colors and directed towards the appropriate DMD. Recombining these reflections from the
corresponding pixel/mirror on each DMD then creates the image.