While the traditional scanning algorithm has the problem of time redundancy, the new development in silicon-based micro display shows a tendency for high gray and high frame rate. Through the research of digital pulse width modulation (PWM) scanning algorithm, weight scan algorithm and subfield scanning algorithm, a recursive scanning model is established and the scanning structure of the recursive scanning algorithm in any bit is deduced. The scanning process is abstracted into matrix form by mathematical model, the principle is to divide the whole display space into many sub spaces, and make full use of the waiting time in the data transmission process, so that the transmission efficiency can reach 100%. It is verified by FPGA hardware platform that the recursive scanning algorithm can make the conversion efficiency reach 100% and the frame rate can reach 85 Hz at the clock frequency 50 MHz and 256 gray scale. It can mainly meet the requirement of high frame rate, high gray scale and low clock frequency in high gray level micro display. The scanning algorithm can not only be applied to the image data transmission of the micro display, but also can be utilized in the flat panel, large screen display and other fields.