US Patent 7242512- Resistance based addressing in MEMS display

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7242512.html

Interferometric based micromechanical displays is a technology being developed by companies such as Iridigm Display and Silicon Light Machines with improved energy efficiency. As opposed to LCDs or other flat panel displays no special material is needed and the pixel reflection is determined in terms of the mechanical state of reflective microribbons. This patent from Iridigm teaches a more efficient method of addressing such displays by assigning different resistance values to subrows in a row thereby allowing a greater number of pixels and larger displays. Claim 1 reads:

1. A display comprising: a plurality of MEMS elements arranged in rows, wherein the MEMS elements of each of the rows are further arranged in subrows and wherein the subrows of each row are electrically connected; and a plurality of resistors, each of the resistors connected to a respective one of the subrows, the respective one of the resistors for each of the subrows of each row having a different resistance from the resistors connected to the other subrows of the row.