Fibre couple light engine
AssigneeGoogle Inc.
InventorsDaniel J. Effinger, Benjamin Wales
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A light engine includes multiple laser diodes, each configured to emit laser light, and a light source unit having multiple channels, each of the channels is associated with one of the laser diodes and configured to transmit the laser light emitted from the corresponding laser diode. The channels may be, for example, fiber optic strands or optical pathways within a channeled lightguide. The light engine further includes a ferrule coupled to the light source unit and configured to receive the laser light from the light source unit and to output a collimated beam of laser light comprising each wavelength of laser light emitted by the laser diodes.
Claims20
A light engine comprising:
- a plurality of laser diodes, each laser diode of the plurality of laser diodes configured to emit laser light representative of at least a portion of an image to be displayed;
- a light source unit comprising a plurality of structures formed in a substrate of a waveguide, the plurality of structures being formed from areas of the substrate having a higher index of refraction than at least a portion of the substrate outside the areas and the plurality of structures forming a plurality of channels with, each channel of the plurality of channels being associated with one of the plurality of laser diodes and configured to transmit the laser light emitted from the corresponding laser diode;
- and
- an output channel formed from a convergence of the plurality of channels and configured to receive the laser light from each channel of the plurality of channels.
A head-mounted display (HMD) system comprising:
- a support structure having a front portion and at least one arm;
- and
- a light engine, housed within the support structure, comprising:
- a light source unit comprising:
- a plurality of laser diodes with each laser diode of the plurality of laser diodes configured to emit laser light representative of at least a portion of an image to be displayed;
- a plurality of structures formed in a substrate of a waveguide, the plurality of structures being formed from areas of the substrate having a higher index of refraction than at least a portion of the substrate outside the areas and the plurality of structures forming a plurality of channels with;
- each channel of the plurality of channels being associated with one of the plurality of laser diodes and configured to transmit the laser light emitted from the corresponding laser diode;
- and
- an output channel formed from a convergence of the plurality of channels and configured to receive the laser light from each channel of the plurality of channels.
A method comprising:
- providing light emitted from each laser diode of a plurality of laser diodes of a light engine to a corresponding channel of a plurality of channels, the plurality of channels comprising a plurality of structures formed in a substrate of a waveguide, wherein the plurality of structures are formed from areas of the substrate having a higher index of refraction than a portion of the substrate outside the areas;
- and
- providing the light from each channel of the plurality of channels to an output channel formed from a convergence of the plurality of channels.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.