US 12,007,610 B2 · Waveguide combiners having a pass-through in-coupler grating

Abstract

Waveguide combiners having a pass-through in-coupler grating are described herein. The waveguide combiners include at least one microdisplay and a stack of at least two waveguide layers. In one configuration of a waveguide combiner described herein, the green FOV and the blue FOV only propagate in a first waveguide and the red FOV only propagates in a second waveguide. In another configuration of a waveguide combiner described herein, the blue FOV, the red FOV, and the green FOV only propagate in the first waveguide, the second waveguide, and a third waveguide respectively. The waveguide combiners including the stack of waveguide layers reduces luminance non-uniformity, color non-uniformity, double-images, and other non-uniformities of the overlayed images from a first microdisplay and, in some embodiments, a second microdisplay.

Claims15

Dependent claims

An optical augmented reality system, comprising:

a microdisplay operable to project a red pupil, a green pupil, and a blue pupil;
a stack of waveguide layers, each of the waveguide layers having an in-coupler grating and an out-coupler grating, the stack of waveguide layers comprising:
a first waveguide layer having a first in-coupler grating operable to in-couple a green channel and a blue channel into the first waveguide layer and allow a red channel, a first residual of the green channel, and a second residual of the blue channel to pass-through such that a green field of view (FOV) of the green channel and a blue FOV of the blue channel are only out-coupled from the first waveguide layer and the red channel is only in-coupled by a second waveguide layer;
and
the second waveguide layer operable to in-couple the red channel such that a red FOV of the red channel is only out-coupled from the second waveguide layer.

2 more elements

An optical augmented reality system, comprising:

at least one microdisplay operable to project one or more of a red pupil, a green pupil, and a blue pupil;
a stack of waveguide layers, each of the waveguide layers having an in-coupler grating and an out-coupler grating, the stack of waveguide layers comprising:
a first waveguide layer having a first in-coupler grating disposed at a first position on the first waveguide layer operable to in-couple a blue channel into the first waveguide layer and allow a red channel to pass-through such that a blue field of view (FOV) of the blue channel is only out-coupled from the first waveguide layer and the red channel is only in-coupled by a second waveguide layer;
the second waveguide layer having a second in-coupler grating operable to in-couple the red channel into the second waveguide layer such that a red FOV of the red channel is only out-coupled from the second waveguide layer, wherein a lateral position of the first in-coupler grating on the first waveguide layer is substantially the same as a lateral position of the second in-coupler grating on the second waveguide layer such that the first in-coupler grating is vertically aligned with the first in-coupler grating for receiving the red channel passing-through the first in-coupler grating;
and
a third waveguide layer having a third in-coupler grating operable to in-couple a green channel into the third waveguide layer such that a green FOV of the green channel is only out-coupled from the third waveguide layer, wherein a lateral position of the third in-coupler grating on the third waveguide layer is different from the lateral positions of the first and second in-coupler gratings on the first and second waveguide layers, respectively;
wherein the in-coupler grating of the first waveguide layer includes a plurality of first structures having a period (ΛIC), and the ΛIC is selected by solving a system of equations for the ΛIC, the system of equations comprising:
λ
G
Λ
IC
-
k
mid
+
1
2
⁢
k
FoV
<
n
;
λ
R
Λ
IC
-
k
mid
+
1
2
⁢
k
FoV
>
n
;
and
λ
B
Λ
IC
-
k
mid
+
1
2
⁢
k
FoV
>
1
,
wherein λR, ΔG, λB correspond to a red channel peak wavelength, a green channel peak wavelength, and a blue channel wavelength, n is a refractive index of the first waveguide layer and the second waveguide layer, kFoV is an extent of a FOV in a k-space along an in-coupler grating vector direction, and kmid is a k-space distance along the in-coupler grating vector direction.

54 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Waveguide combiners having a pass-through in-coupler grating

Life of this patent

Waveguide combiners having a pass-through in-coupler grating

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims15