Patent ID: 8102592

Claim:
An interferometric modulator having a movable plate that is actuated to define a cavity and is automatically controlled to compensate for imbalance conditions that can otherwise cause the movable plate to tilt about at least one of two orthogonal axes, comprising: (a) a fixed plate that is disposed opposite the movable plate, where a distance between the movable plate and the fixed plate defines a depth of the cavity, where the cavity is used to modulate light transmitted into the cavity; (b) a plurality of electrodes that are disposed opposite at least one other electrode, wherein either the plurality of electrodes or the at least one other electrode is disposed on the movable plate; (c) conductors coupled to the plurality of electrodes and to the at least one other electrode, the conductors being configured to be coupled to a controlled voltage source, to enable predefined voltages to be applied to each of the electrodes of the plurality of electrodes, wherein application of an appropriate voltage to each electrode produces an electrostatic attraction that moves the movable plate so as to change the depth of the cavity and also compensates for the imbalance conditions to substantially eliminate tilting of the movable plate about at least one of the two orthogonal axes.