Dlp ™ Concept; Lamp - Panasonic PT-50DL54 Technical Manual

DLP ™ Concept
The most recent of the projection TV systems is Digital Light Processing ™ Technology
or DLP ™. DLP ™ Technology, after being conceived in 1987, was brought into the
practical market by Texas Instruments technologies recently.
The DLP ™ system consists of 4 main sections (refer to figure 4):

1. Lamp

2. Color wheel
3. Digital Micro-Mirror Device (DMD)
4. Projection Lens
Figure 4 - DLP ™ System
Lamp
See figure 4. The system starts with a white, high brightness lamp. This mercury vapor
lamp has two electrodes and no filaments. Since there are no filaments, more voltage is
required to start the lamp, unlike a fluorescent bulb. However, the mercury lamp has a
longer life. As in a fluorescent bulb, once the arc is started across the electrodes
(between the filaments in a fluorescent bulb), the operating current is limited and
regulated to maintain consistent brightness.
Color Wheel
The light generated by the lamp passes through the spinning color wheel panes. See
figure 4. The color wheel is driven by a 3-phase motor (not shown) that starts when the
TV is turned on.
As the wheel rotates, it produces synchronization pulses that are delivered to the DMD
video circuit. The sync pulses "cue" the video, which has already been regrouped into
RGB bursts by the DMD circuitry (not shown).
Figure 5 - Nine
Mirrors Magnified
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