Laser TV: (Top two illustrations)Ribbons of light from three lasers—red, green, and blue—is partially diffracted by Grating Light Valves. A Fourier filter distinguishes diffracted red, green, and blue light from reflected light and the colors are combined to make up the colors of the pixels in the video image, 1080 pixels at a time. The pixels change at 115 kilohertz a second as the resulting high-resolution image is painted across the screen, one vertical line at a time.

Color Controller

(Bottom left) The color of each pixel in the TV picture is created by groups of movable ribbons that make up a Grating Light Valve and form diffraction gratings. Each group consists of six parallel ribbons of silicon nitride, coated with a reflective top layer and supported at their ends over a silicon substrate. A group is set to the diffracting state by deflecting alternate ribbons a variable amount, which depends on the intensity of color to be produced.