Substrate comprising electrodes and light modulator with reduced diffraction
Substrate are disclosed for use in a light modulator. The substrate may comprise at least one driving electrodes applied to the substrate. The driving electrode is arranged in a pattern across the substrate. The pattern of multiple driving electrodes across the substrate comprises multiple repeated building blocks. Electrodes in the building blocks forming the at least one driving electrode.
1. A substrate for use in a light modulator, the substrate comprising
at least one driving electrode applied to the substrate, the driving electrode being arranged in a pattern across the substrate, the pattern of the driving electrode across the substrate comprising multiple repeated building blocks, the building block comprising
one or more electrodes extending in at least 2 different directions across the building block, the electrodes in the building blocks forming the at least one driving electrode, wherein an electrode in a building block comprises multiple nodes where the electrode branches, the nodes being electrically connected through electrode lines, the multiple nodes and connecting electrode lines forming a tree, the electrode comprising at least a first node where the electrode branches into at least three electrode lines, the first node being directly connected through an electrode line to a second node and to a third node, the electrode branching into at least three electrode lines at the second node and at the third node.
2. A substrate as in claim 1 , wherein the at least 2 different directions are orthogonal or skewed with respect to each other.
3. A substrate as in claim 1 , for at least one electrode in the electrodes in the building block a maximal length between any two points on said electrode measured along said electrode in the building block is at least 2 times the length of the diameter of the building block unit, wherein the diameter is defined as the largest distance between two points of the building block.
4. A substrate as in claim 3 , wherein the building block is rectangular and the diameter is a diagonal.
5. A substrate as in claim 1 , wherein the calculated pixelated noise metric of the driving electrode pattern of the substrate is below 6.05%, or below 5% or below 4%, wherein the pixelated noise metric is defined as the ratio of the maximum intensity among all the non-zero order peaks and the maximum intensity of the zero-order peak from the magnitude spectrum.
6. A substrate as in claim 1 , wherein
angles between two directly connected electrodes lines have been randomly selected, and/or
directly connected electrodes lines in the building block forming multiple angles, wherein the angles cover the interval of 0 to 360 degrees, in particular, for each particular interval of at least 30 consecutive angles there is at least one angle in the multiple angles that falls in the particular interval, and/or
the multiple nodes have been randomly selected to cover an area of a building block, and/or
the electrode lines are straight, or curved, and/or
the electrode lines widths are not constant along an electrode line.
7. A substrate as in claim 1 , wherein
a building block repeats across the substrate in at least two different directions, and/or
multiple different building blocks repeat across the substrate in one or two direction, and/or
two different building blocks repeat in a checkerboard pattern across the substrate, and/or
the substrate comprises non-repeating electrode lines connected to a driving electrode.
8. A substrate as in claim 1 , wherein
two electrodes in a building block that are not connected in the building block are connected in the substrate through a connection in a neighboring building block, and/or
an electrode in the building block is connected to at least two sides of the building block.
9. A substrate as in claim 1 , wherein
building blocks are translated with and without mirroring and/or point reflection, and/or
a row or column of building blocks are mirrored over its longitudinal direction to form a next row or columns of building blocks.
10. A substrate as in claim 1 , wherein at least one driving bus is arranged on the substrate for each driving electrode of the at least one driving electrode to drive the driving electrode, wherein
at least one driving bus is arranged at a side of the substrate for each driving electrode to drive the driving electrode, and/or
the driving busses are only arranged at the side of the substrate, and/or
the driving busses are arranged between the building blocks covering the substrate.
11. A substrate as in claim 1 , wherein at least one driving electrode is isolated from the edges of the substrate, a via being connected to the isolated driving electrode from a surface of the substrate opposite the driving electrode for powering the isolated driving electrode and/or connecting the isolated driving electrode to another part of the driving electrode on the substrate.
12. A substrate as in claim 1 , wherein at least one driving bus is arranged on the substrate for each driving electrode to drive the driving electrode, the at least one driving bus is arranged at a side of the substrate and/or a side of the building block, said driving bus comprising discontinuous parts, said discontinuous parts being connected through the driving electrode driven by the driving bus.
13. A substrate as in claim 1 , wherein the driving electrodes have mirror symmetry.
14. A substrate as in claim 1 , wherein the substrate is non-rectangular.
15. A substrate as in claim 1 , wherein the at least one driving electrode are multiple driving electrodes,
the multiple driving electrodes being interdigitated, each of the multiple driving electrodes being arranged in a pattern across the substrate, the multiple interdigitated driving electrodes being arranged alternatingly with respect to each other on the substrate, the pattern of multiple driving electrodes across the substrate comprising multiple repeated building blocks, the building block comprising
multiple interdigitated electrodes extending in at least 2 different directions across the building block, the interdigitated electrodes in the building block forming the driving electrodes.
16. A substrate as in claim 15 , wherein the multiple driving electrodes comprises a first driving electrode and a second driving electrode, wherein
from any point in the substrate, a nearest distance to a first and to a second driving electrode is below a threshold, and/or
from any point in the substrate, the sum of the nearest distance to the first and to the second driving electrode is below a first threshold, and/or above a second threshold, and/or
a distance from a point on a first driving electrode to a point on a second driving electrode is at least a second threshold, and/or
a horizontal and/or vertical size of the building block is at least 10 times the sum of an electrode line width and an electrode distance.
17. A substrate as in claim 15 , wherein
the driving electrodes lie in the same plane and do not cross, or
the driving electrodes cross in the substrate, a dielectric separating the crossing driving electrodes, at least at a crossing point.
18. A light modulator comprising:
a first substrate as in claim 1 , and a second substrate, the first and second substrates being arranged with inner sides opposite to each other, the at least one driving electrode being applied to the inner side of at least one of the first and second substrates,
an optical layer between the first and second substrates, and
a controller configured to apply an electric potential to the driving electrodes causing modulation of the optical properties of the light modulator.
19. A light modulator as in claim 18 , wherein the optical layer comprises particles, wherein the particles are electrically charged or chargeable, and the controller is configured to apply an electric potential to the driving electrode to obtain an electro-magnetic field providing electrophoretic movement of the particles towards or the driving electrode causing modulation of the optical properties of the light modulator.
20. A light modulator comprising:
a first substrate as in claim 15 and a second substrate as in claim 15 , the first and second substrates being arranged with inner sides opposite to each other, the at least one driving electrode being applied to the inner side of at least one of the first and second substrates,
an optical layer between the first and second substrates, and
a controller configured to apply an electric potential to the driving electrodes causing modulation of the optical properties of the light modulator, the controller being configured to apply an electric potential to the multiple driving electrodes to obtain an electro-magnetic field between the multiple driving electrodes providing electrophoretic movement of the particles towards or from one of the multiple driving electrodes causing modulation of the optical properties of the light modulator.
21. A light modulator as in claim 18 , wherein
the electrode pattern on the first substrate, the electrode pattern on the second substrate and/or the superimposition of electrode patterns of the first and second substrate have a calculated Pixelated noise metric below 6.05%, or 5%, or 4%, wherein the pixelated noise metric is defined as the ratio of the maximum intensity among all the non-zero order peaks and the maximum intensity of the zero-order peak from the magnitude spectrum.
22. A method of modulating light, comprising
applying an electric potential to driving electrodes applied to two opposing substrates to obtain an electro-magnetic field between the driving electrodes providing electrophoretic movement of the particles towards or from one of the multiple driving electrodes causing modulation of light shining through the substrates, wherein the at least one or both of the two opposing substrates are as in claim 1 .
23. A computer implemented method of computing pixelated noise metric for an electrode pattern for a light modulator, the method comprising
preparing a black and white design picture to specific dimensions where electrodes lines are black and substrate background is white,
calculate the magnitude and angle for the chirp z-transform without scaling using the Bluestein method,
determining a main peak value as the maximum intensity within the magnitude spectrum of the chirp z-transform of the design picture,
determining a higher peak value as the second maximum intensity within the magnitude spectrum chirp z-transform excluding the main peak, and
calculating the pixelated noise metric as the ratio between the higher peak value and the main peak value.
24. A method of computing pixelated noise metric as in claim 23 , wherein the design picture is an 8-bit picture, with black being set to 0, and white to 255.