The Digital Micromirror Device (DMD) developed by Texas Instruments has made tremendous progress in both performance and reliability since it was first invented in 1987. From the first working concept of a bistable mirror, the DMD is now providing high-brightness, high-contrast, and high-reliability in over 5,000,000 projectors using Digital Light Processing™ (DLP™) technology.

In recent years, the DMD has achieved the status of being a commercially successful MEMS device. The knowledge we gained through our characterization and testing helped us achieve this success. The performance of our production DMD has achieved, and in some cases exceeded, our reliability goals. For every new DMD as well as for each major design change, Texas Instruments performs a detailed failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA). This process assures the standards achieved for reliability and performance are maintained on all subsequent designs.

This tutorial will discuss some of the metrology developed for the DMD, accelerated stress testing techniques, environmental testing, unique DMD life tests, test equipment development, packaging, modeling and failure analysis. The use of characterization and testing and how they were essential to achieve our reliability goals will be discussed.