# US 2021/0240004 A1 · 3d display apparatus > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2021/0240004 A1 - Document ID: US20210240004A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 17/238,004 - Filed: 2021-04-22 - Published: 2021-08-05 - Earliest claimed: 2018-07-03 - Assignees: Ultra-D CoöPeratief U.A. - Applicants: Ultra-D CoöPeratief U.A. - Inventors: Waltherus Antonius Hendrikus ROELEN; Herman Geert MARSMAN - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20210240004A1 ## CPC - G02B 30/24: involving temporal multiplexing, e.g. using sequentially activated left and right shutters - G02B 30/26: of the autostereoscopic type - G02B 30/27: involving lenticular arrays - G02B 30/36: using refractive optical elements, e.g. prisms, in the optical path between the images and the observer - G02B 5/1866: {Transmission gratings characterised by their structure, e.g. step profile, contours of substrate or grooves, pitch variations, materials (G02B5/1809, G02B5/1828, G02B5/1833, G02B5/1838 and G02B5/1847 take precedence)} - G02B: OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS ## Abstract Some embodiments are directed to a display apparatus for enabling a user to experience a 3D perception when visual information is presented by the display apparatus. The display apparatus has an image forming unit having a two-dimensional array of image subpixels arranged to emit light for presenting associated visual information, and an optical system having an array of diffractive optical elements associated with respective ones of the array of image subpixels. Each diffractive optical element is arranged to diffract light from the associated image subpixel into a diffraction pattern with a plurality of diffraction orders to provide the visual information from the associated image subpixel to a plurality of directional viewing regions associated with the plurality of diffraction orders. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A display apparatus for enabling a user to experience a 3D perception in a plurality of directional viewing regions when visual information is presented by the display apparatus, the display apparatus comprising: an image forming unit that includes a two-dimensional array of image subpixels arranged to emit light for presenting associated visual information, and an optical system that includes an array of diffractive optical elements associated with respective ones of the array of image subpixels, each diffractive optical element being arranged to diffract light from the associated image subpixel into a diffraction pattern including a plurality of diffraction orders to provide the visual information from the associated image subpixel to a plurality of directional viewing regions associated with the plurality of diffraction orders, so as to effectively duplicate the visual information presented by the associated subpixel to each of the plurality of directional viewing regions, the array of diffractive optical elements including a plurality of subsets of diffractive optical elements, the diffractive optical elements of each subset of diffractive optical elements being arranged to provide the diffraction patterns from the diffractive optical elements of the subset with an associated predetermined subset direction, the predetermined subset directions of different subsets of diffractive optical elements being different so as to enable separation of visual information to be presented to the left eye of the user from visual information to be presented to the right eye of the user to enable the user to view with 3D perception, the array of diffractive optical elements thus being arranged to provide the visual information from the image subpixels associated with the diffractive optical elements of the different subsets to each of the directional viewing regions at the associated predetermined different subset directions within each of the plurality of directional viewing regions so as to enable the user to view with 3D perception in each of the plurality of directional viewing regions. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each diffractive optical element of the array of diffractive optical elements is arranged to diffract light from the associated image subpixel into the diffraction pattern including the plurality of diffraction orders, wherein adjacent non-suppressed diffraction orders of the plurality of diffraction orders associated with the directional viewing regions are separated by one or more suppressed diffraction orders. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The display apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the suppression is different for different subsets to provide the diffraction pattern from the associated diffractive optical element with the predetermined subset direction. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each diffractive optical element of the array of diffractive optical elements is arranged to diffract light from the associated image subpixel into the diffraction pattern including the plurality of diffraction orders according to a plurality of predefined intensity ratios between the diffraction orders. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of directional viewing regions are restricted to one or more predefined limited directional ranges. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each diffractive optical element is a diffractive grating. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The display apparatus according to claim 1, the two-dimensional image forming unit being arranged for emitting light with a predefined angular intensity profile from the image subpixels of the two-dimensional array of image subpixels to the optical system. ### Claim 8 (depends on 7) The display apparatus according to claim 7, the two-dimensional image forming unit being arranged for emitting light with the predefined angular intensity profile with a time-periodically varying angular profile direction and to provide associated visual information to the subpixels to provide the visual information from the image subpixels associated with the different subsets to the directional viewing regions in periodically different directions, to enable the user to view with 3D perception in each of the plurality of directional viewing regions. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The display apparatus according to claim 1, the array of diffractive optical elements being arranged to provide corresponding diffraction patterns for sets of image subpixels arranged to emit light with different colors to provide corresponding directional viewing regions associated with the plurality of diffraction orders of light with different colors. ### Claim 10 (depends on 2) The display apparatus according to claim 2, wherein each diffractive optical element of the array of diffractive optical elements is arranged to diffract light from the associated image subpixel into the diffraction pattern including the plurality of diffraction orders according to a plurality of predefined intensity ratios between the diffraction orders. ### Claim 11 (depends on 3) The display apparatus according to claim 3, wherein each diffractive optical element of the array of diffractive optical elements is arranged to diffract light from the associated image subpixel into the diffraction pattern including the plurality of diffraction orders according to a plurality of predefined intensity ratios between the diffraction orders. ### Claim 12 (depends on 2) The display apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the plurality of directional viewing regions are restricted to one or more predefined limited directional ranges. ### Claim 13 (depends on 3) The display apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the plurality of directional viewing regions are restricted to one or more predefined limited directional ranges. ### Claim 14 (depends on 4) The display apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the plurality of directional viewing regions are restricted to one or more predefined limited directional ranges. ### Claim 15 (depends on 2) The display apparatus according to claim 2, wherein each diffractive optical element is a diffractive grating. ### Claim 16 (depends on 3) The display apparatus according to claim 3, wherein each diffractive optical element is a diffractive grating. ### Claim 17 (depends on 4) The display apparatus according to claim 4, wherein each diffractive optical element is a diffractive grating. ### Claim 18 (depends on 5) The display apparatus according to claim 5, wherein each diffractive optical element is a diffractive grating. ### Claim 19 (depends on 2) The display apparatus according to claim 2, the two-dimensional image forming unit being arranged for emitting light with a predefined angular intensity profile from the image subpixels of the two-dimensional array of image subpixels to the optical system. ### Claim 20 (depends on 3) The display apparatus according to claim 3, the two-dimensional image forming unit being arranged for emitting light with a predefined angular intensity profile from the image subpixels of the two-dimensional array of image subpixels to the optical system.