Increased accuracy corner cube arrays for high resolution retro-reflective imaging applications
AssigneeMicrosoft Technology Licensing, LLC
InventorsKarlton Powell, John Lutian
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Tooling and optic elements for a retro-imaging system may be formed on order near atomic level of accuracy by making use of either etching or growth techniques of a cubic crystal lattice, such as silicon. The elements may be formed directly using selective etching or epitaxial growth by coating and clear resin lamination, or replicated to avoid shrinkage and curvature by use of low shrinkage resins or double-fill molding techniques. Through the use of these highly accurate reflection/diffraction elements, floating images may be formed with relatively high resolution in retro-reflective imaging systems, for example.
Claims20
A retro-reflective array comprising:
- a corner cube array;
- and
- a reflective surface covering facets of a plurality of corner cube structures of the corner cube array.
A display system comprising:
- one or more light sources;
- and
- a beam splitter configured to partially reflect source light from the one or more light sources to a retro-reflective array, the retro-reflective array comprising a reflective surface formed by one or more corner cube arrays (CCAs),
- wherein the retro-reflective array is configured to reflect the source light through the beam splitter so that the light is reconvergent.
A corner cube array (CCA) based retro-reflective array fabrication system, the fabrication system comprising:
- a growth module configured to employ selective epitaxial growth to form a plurality of corner cube structures on a wafer;
- a coating module configured to apply reflective coating to one of facets of the plurality of corner cube structures to form a first surface reflector or to a backside of a clear substrate formed over the plurality of corner cube structures using a clear resin to form a second surface reflector;
- and
- a controller configured to determine a pitch for the corner cube structures based on a tradeoff of a diffraction and an image breakup caused by the retro-reflective array.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.