3m Innovative Properties Company

Facebook Technologies, LLC

Meta Platforms Technologies, LLC

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company

Other

3m Innovative Properties

Meta Platforms, Inc.

3m Innovative Property Company

3m Intellectual Properties Company

Io Strategies LLC

Andrew John Ouderkirk

Michael F Weber

Robin Sharma

Katherine Marie Smyth

Erin A McDowell

Timothy L Wong

Zhisheng Yun

John Allen Wheatley

Carl A Stover

Timothy J Nevitt

Tanya Malhotra

Christopher Yuan Ting Liao

Sheng Ye

Gregg A Ambur

Karol Constantine Hatzilias

James M Jonza

Olester Benson, Jr

Qi Zhang

Sanford Cobb, Jr

Richard C Allen

Ying Geng

Brian M Wheelwright

Catherine A Leatherdale

Lu Lu

Douglas Scott Dunn

Barry David Silverstein

Kenneth A Epstein

Babak Amirsolaimani

Robert Dale Cavin

Jacques Gollier

Yusufu Njoni Bamaxam Sulai

Scott Charles McEldowney

Nicholas T Gabriel

Timothy J Hebrink

Wanli Chi

Patrick R Fleming

James Ronald Bonar

Alexander Jobe Fix

Pasi Saarikko

Gilles J Benoit

Jasmine Soria Sears

William Ward Merrill

Giuseppe Calafiore

Craig R Schardt

John C Schultz

Austin Lane

Joseph Clark Carls

Hee Yoon Lee

Zhaohui Yang

Maxwell Parsons

David G Freier

Robert L Brott

Rolf W Biernath

Philip Edwin Watson

Weichuan Gao

Nicholas Daniel Trail

Wai Sze Tiffany Lam

Robert Warner

Oleg Yaroshchuk

Michael Alan Meis

Fenglin Peng

Adam D Haag

Michael L Steiner

Behnam Bastani

Stephan Lutgen

Matthew E Colburn

Charles L Bruzzone

Andrew Maimone

William J Kopecky

Peter D Condo

Kenneth L Smith

Ronald David Jesme

Gary Timothy Boyd

Thomas J Blong

Larry D Boardman

Tao Liu

Yun-Han Lee

Junren Wang

Andrew P Bonifas

Shandon Dee Hart

Tristan Thomas Trutna

Sumita Basu Mitra

Kurt Jenkins

Anatoly Z Rosenflanz

David C Windorski

Pooya Saketi

Mengfei Wang

Arlie R Conner

Joseph Andrew Hoffman

Michael Albert Haase

Douglas Robert Lanman

Kenton D Budd

Simon Magarill

Vincenzo Casasanta, Iii

Marc Dudley Radcliffe

Sebastian Sztuk

David Scott Thompson

Mark E Gardiner

Robert S Moshrefzadeh

Daniel J Schmidt

An optical element includes a waveguide body that is configured to guide light by total internal reflection from an input end to an output end, an input coupling structure located at the input end for coupling light into the waveguide body, and an output coupling structure located at the output end for coupling light out of the waveguide body, where the waveguide body includes a layer of an organic solid crystal. Such an optical element may have low weight and exhibit good color uniformity.

Waveguide with birefringent organic solid crystal layer

A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) includes an organic solid crystal (OSC) material layer, the OSC material layer having a substrate portion and a raised optical element integral with and extending from the substrate portion. The raised optical element may include a passive or active component of the photonic integrated circuit.

Active modulation of the refractive index in photonic integrated circuits via charge injection

An optical system including at least a first lens, a partial reflector and a reflective polarizer is described. The optical system has an optical axis such that a light ray propagating along the optical axis passes through the first lens the partial reflector and the reflective polarizer without being substantially refracted. At least one major surface of the optical system is rotationally asymmetric about the optical axis. A major surface of the optical system may have a first portion defined by a first equation and a second portion adjacent the first portion defined by a different equation. The first lens may have a contoured edge adapted to be placed adjacent an eye of a viewer and substantially conform to the viewer's face.

Optical system

An example apparatus may include a display and an optical configuration configured to provide an image of a display, for example, in a head-mounted device. An example apparatus may include a display and an optical configuration including a first lens assembly and a second lens assembly. The first lens assembly may include a first lens, a first reflector, and an actuator. The second lens assembly may include a second lens and a second reflector. An example apparatus may include a controller configured to apply at least one electrical signal to the actuator to control the optical power of the first lens. The display light may pass through the actuator, which may be transparent and may include a plurality of actuator layers. Other devices, methods, systems and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Pancake lens with controlled curvature

A bi-focal prescription eyewear lens includes a substrate and a reflective polarizer, or a partial reflector, bonded to the substrate. A reflective polarizer substantially transmits light having a first polarization state and substantially reflects light having an orthogonal second polarization state. The bi-focal optical lens has a first focal length for light having the first polarization state and a second focal length for light having the second polarization state. The first focal length is longer than the second focal length. Without the reflective polarizer or partial reflector, the bi-focal optical lens would have a single focal length. Eyeglasses can include the bi-focal prescription eyewear lens.

Bi-focal eyewear lens and eyeglasses including same

A switchable grating may be used to redirect illuminating light for illuminating a user's eye in an eye tracking system, to facilitate the determination of eye position and/or orientation. The eye tracking system may be used in a near-eye display. An eye tracking camera obtains an eye image, and a controller performs an initial determination of the eye position. The controller may switch the switchable grating to direct the illuminating light beam onto the eye, for a better position and/or eye orientation determination.

Eye tracking with switchable gratings

A multilayer organic thin film includes a plurality of biaxially-oriented layers, where each layer is characterized by mutually orthogonal refractive indices, n≠n≠n. In example structures, the corresponding in-plane refractive indices of adjacent layers may be rotated with respect to each other by a predetermined angle. Such a multilayer may be incorporated into a circular reflective polarizer, for example, which may be used in display systems to provide high broadband efficiency and high off-axis contrast. In an example process, individual organic thin films may be molded, and then oriented and stacked to form a multilayer.

Multilayer organic solid thin films having a biaxial refractive index

Eyeglass devices may include a frame shaped and sized to be worn by a user at least partially in front of the user's eyes, a varifocal optical element mounted to the frame, and an eye-tracking element mounted to the frame. The varifocal optical element may include a substantially transparent actuator positioned at least partially within an optical aperture of the varifocal optical element and configured to alter a shape of the varifocal optical element upon actuation. The eye-tracking element may be configured to track at least a gaze direction of the user's eyes, and the varifocal optical element may be configured to change, based on information from the eye-tracking element, in at least one optical property including a focal distance. Various other devices, systems, and methods are also disclosed.

Eyeglass devices and related methods

Optical films are disclosed that include a plurality of interference layers. Each interference layer reflects or transmits light primarily by optical interference. The total number of the interference layers is less than about 1000. For a substantially normally incident light in a predetermined wavelength range, the plurality of interference layers has an average optical transmittance greater than about 85% for a first polarization state, an average optical reflectance greater than about 80% for an orthogonal second polarization state, and an average optical transmittance less than about 0.2% for the second polarization state.

High contrast optical film and devices including the same

An actuator includes a primary electrode, a secondary electrode overlapping at least a portion of the primary electrode, and an electroactive layer disposed between and abutting the primary electrode and the secondary electrode, where a mechanical deformation of the electroactive layer is locally controllable over an area of the actuator. The mechanical deformation of the electroactive layer may be configured to generate compound curvature, e.g., in an optical element co-integrated with the actuator, without buckling the optical element.

Actuator for generating compound curvature

An optical element includes a substrate and a metasurface located over a surface of the substrate. The metasurface may include an organic solid crystal material. A related display includes a waveguide, and a light input coupling element disposed on a surface of the waveguide, where the light input coupling element includes an organic solid crystal metasurface.

OSC metasurfaces

A mechanically and piezoelectrically anisotropic polymer thin film may be formed by gel casting a solution that includes a crystallizable polymer and a liquid solvent. The solvent may be configured to interact with the polymer to facilitate chain alignment and, in some examples, create a higher crystalline content within the cast thin film. The thin film may also include up to approximately 90 wt. % of an additive and may be characterized by a bimodal molecular weight distribution of a crystallizable polymer where the molecular weight of the additive may be less than the molecular weight of the crystallizable polymer. In some examples, the polymer(s) and the additive(s) may be independently selected from vinylidene fluoride, trifluoroethylene, chlorotrifluoroethylene, hexafluoropropene, vinyl fluoride, etc. The anisotropic polymer thin film may be characterized by an electromechanical coupling factor (k) of at least 0.1.

PVDF thin films having high electromechanical efficiency and a gel casting method for forming same

Embodiments of the disclosure are directed to index-gradient antireflective coatings that include a differential concentration of nanovoids versus thickness of the coating. In one embodiment, an index-gradient antireflective coating may have an index of refraction that varies from a first value to that of a second material. In another embodiment, the substrate may be optically transparent, and made of, for example, polymer, glass, or ceramics. The index-gradient antireflective coating can be fabricated using a non-uniform spin-coating process, by successive thermal evaporation, or by a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. In another embodiment, the spin-coating process can include multiple steps that include different concentrations of monomers to solvent, different spin-speeds, or different annealing times/temperatures. Similarly, the thermal evaporation can include multiple steps that include different concentrations of monomers, initiators, solvents, and associated processing parameters. Various other methods, systems, apparatuses, and materials are also disclosed.

Index-gradient structures with nanovoided materials and corresponding systems and methods

An organic thin film includes an organic solid crystal material and has mutually orthogonal refractive indices, n, n, and neach having a value at 589 nm of between approximately 1.5 and approximately 2.6, where n≠n≠n. The organic thin film may be birefringent, and may be configured as a single layer thin film, or plural organic thin films may be stacked to form a multilayer that may be incorporated into an optical element, such as a reflective polarizer.

High refractive index and highly birefringent solid organic materials

An optical film includes a plurality of helically arranged liquid crystals and organic solid crystal structures at least partially surrounding the plurality of helically arranged liquid crystals. A method of making the optical film includes obtaining a substrate with an alignment layer and a film of a first solution on the alignment layer. The first solution includes liquid crystals and organic crystal molecules. The liquid crystals form a plurality of helically arranged liquid crystals on the alignment layer. The method also includes forming organic solid crystal structures by crystallizing the organic crystal molecules. The organic solid crystal structures at least partially surround the plurality of helically arranged liquid crystals.

Organic solid crystals having helical structures formed using cholesteric liquid crystals

Growing community of inventors

Saint Paul, MN, United States of America

Andrew John Ouderkirk