Ultra-high resolution projectors will improve the visual systems of military flight simulators dramatically. There are changes in aspect angle and aspect rate which fixed-wing fighter pilots can discriminate at long standoff distances, but which cannot be displayed with adequate resolution by the visual systems of contemporary flight simulators. At present the limit of display resolution is fix...

An electrostatic torsion micromirror is designed using the optimized spring-shaped torsion beams and U-shaped groove supporters. The main advantages of this design will be a reduction in the pull-in voltage for low-voltage applications and the function as a switch of the instability mode by adjusting the effective bending stiffness of the torsion beam. In this design, a theoretical model is dev...

We report hybrid polymer actuator arrays based on environmentally responsive hydrogel and actuatable optical microstructures that are designed to reversibly switch optical properties in response to the environment. Arrays of micrometer scale plates were patterned by deep reactive ion etching of silicon which served as master structures for replica molding in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). UV-cura...

We present a new optical system design for a projector with a single digital micromirror device (Texas Instruments Digital Micromirror Device) that improves on previous designs in terms of optical efficiency, uniformity, and contrast while yielding a low-profile and compact system. A rod integrator is incorporated with a compact relay system to maximize light efficiency and to increase illumina...

Avionics display systems using CRTs as core of the projection system suffer from reliability issues added to increased weight and cost of the associated circuitry. Though CRTs offer some advantages in the form of good brightness and contrast ratio even in the high ambient light conditions, recent advancement in microelectomechanical system (MEMS) based display technology ushered in an era of mi...