Gigapixel and 1440-perspective extended-angle display by megapixel MEMS-SLM

Orders-of-magnitude increases are desired in pixel count and pixel density of Spatial Light Modulators (SLM) for next-gen displays such as the highly-anticipated all-day-wearable near-to-eye display. We present in-plane and simultaneous angular-spatial light modulation by a Micro Electro Mechanical System (MEMS) based SLM, a Digital Micromirror Device (DMD), to generate gigapixel output by time and angular multiplexing. Pulsed illumination synchronized to the micromirror actuation achieves pixel-implemented and diffraction-based angular modulation, and source multiplexing increases angular resolution. We demonstrate 1440-perspective image output across a 43.9°×1.8° FOV, 8-bit multi-perspective videos at 30 FPS, and multi-focal-plane image generation. We discuss scalability to terapixels and implications for near-to-eye displays.