Magneto-optic chip with gray-scale capability

Claim 1

A magneto-optic chip (42) to achieve gray-scale including a plurality of pixel positions (44); the magneto-optic chip comprising: (a) each of the pixel positions including individually-addressable pixel sub-positions (46, 48, 50, 52); (b) at least two of said pixel sub-positions having respective areas of different size; and (c) a first pair of conductors (47, 49) oriented in a first direction and a second pair of conductors (51, 53) oriented in a second direction to electrically address individual ones of said different sized pixel sub-positions and place a selected one of said pixel sub-positions in a respective one of three magnetic states, which affect the passage of light therethrough at an associated one of three light levels; a first magnetic state when magnetized one direction so that the selected pixel sub-position is transparent to light passage, a second magnetic state when magnetized in an opposite direction so that the sub-position is opaque to light passage, and a third magnetic state when demagnetized or stripped out so that the sub-position is both transparent and opaque to light passage, so that an associated amount of light passage through said selected pixel sub-position has one of the three levels of light passage or brightness, and selected pixel sub-positions associated with the respective pixel position develop a desired degree of gray scale at the respective pixel position.