Four Million Tiny Mirrors: The Insane Engineering of DLP and the Future of 3D Printing

There's huge power in this 3D printer's tiny mirrors.
Get a Photon D2 DLP printer: https://bit.ly/3B7MIKx

In this episode, we bust open a rare DLP resin printer to show how microelectromechanical systems - nay, microOPTOelectromechanical systems, make impossible tasks trivial. This fusion of SRAM, electrostatic actuators, micromachined springs, and graphics circuitry enables us to build incredibly precise, powerful, and high-performance displays. There's a science fair model, tiny Warframes, a projector that's also a car headlight, half a snake, and penny-pinching regret. It's a fun time.

About the title: the Photon D2's resolution is 2560x1440, but on the DLP chip, those pixels are surrounded by a buffer zone of partially-broken micromirrors. It's a method of increasing production yield, and means that even though this 2k printer drives 3.68 micromirrors, the chip itself contains well over four million in total. Most of those could function, but the display driver leaves them in the neutral position to keep the resolution predictable.

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(I'm there all the time!)

Models:
🌸 Warframe Protea by Fanaatti and Digital Extremes: https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/art/w...
🌺 Warframe Lotus by Sinsaberius and Digital Extremes: https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/...
🤺 Excalibur Noggle by Willow Creative and Digital Extremes: https://willow-creative.nl/download/e...
🥦 bROCKoli by Plastic 3D: https://social.thangs.com/m/39237?utm...
🐍 cobra.stl by boonsawangpanida
https://social.thangs.com/m/264728?ut...
⚱ Vase thing by Anycubic, included with printer

Timetable:
00:00-01:50 DLP, Anycubic, and You
01:50-03:42 Tiny Silicon Machinery
03:42-05:58 My Model Micromirror
05:58-06:38 What DLP Can Do
06:38-08:10 LCDs Kinda Suck
08:10-10:05 Why DLP is in Every Projector
10:05-13:26 LCD Printers Kinda Suck
13:26-14:58 Why DLP is Great for Resin
14:58-18:00 Thankies

The following copyrighted material was used as permitted by fair use and/or license terms:
• Ratcheting MEMS motor: NIST (US Government) https://www.nist.gov/video/tiny-gears...
• Other scanning-electron microscopy courtesy Sandia National Laboratories, SUMMiT™ Technologies, www.sandia.gov/mstc
• Chip fabrication + cleanroom footage: Intel Inc
• Photon Ultra footage: Anycubic
• DLP optical microscopy: SIC66SIC66    • DLP projector chips (DMD)  
• DLP Cinema intro, DLP principle-of-operation, LightCrafter 2000 EVM footage, headlight demo: Texas Instruments
• Where's Waldo chip art: Michael W Davidson and the Florida State University https://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/creature...
• Interference SFX: Partners in Rhyme

Opinions presented in this video are NOT paid endorsements and represent my sincere thoughts. Anycubic provided nothing but the printer and a fact sheet. They exercised no editorial control and requested no edits.