Liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator for infrared scene generation

Liquid crystal spatial light modulators are emerging as a viable alternative to emitter arrays as the display engine for infrared scene projection. Some benefits of liquid crystal spatial light modulators include low cost, light weight (to enable portable test engines) flickerless scene generation with no dead pixels. Other possible advantages include high efficiency operation, scalable architecture and potential for high apparent temperature simulation. We discuss a recently developed high voltage 512x512 liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator. Design considerations and experimental data on device performance are presented.