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

Douglas Scott Dunn

Barry David Silverstein

Lu Lu

Kenneth A Epstein

Robert Dale Cavin

Babak Amirsolaimani

Jacques Gollier

Yusufu Njoni Bamaxam Sulai

Scott Charles McEldowney

Nicholas T Gabriel

Timothy J Hebrink

Patrick R Fleming

James Ronald Bonar

Alexander Jobe Fix

Pasi Saarikko

Gilles J Benoit

Jasmine Soria Sears

William Ward Merrill

Wanli Chi

Craig R Schardt

John C Schultz

Joseph Clark Carls

Austin Lane

Giuseppe Calafiore

Hee Yoon Lee

David G Freier

Robert L Brott

Rolf W Biernath

Philip Edwin Watson

Maxwell Parsons

Zhaohui Yang

Weichuan Gao

Nicholas Daniel Trail

Wai Sze Tiffany Lam

Oleg Yaroshchuk

Michael Alan Meis

Behnam Bastani

Stephan Lutgen

Charles L Bruzzone

Matthew E Colburn

William J Kopecky

Andrew Maimone

Peter D Condo

Kenneth L Smith

Ronald David Jesme

Gary Timothy Boyd

Fenglin Peng

Adam D Haag

Thomas J Blong

Michael L Steiner

Larry D Boardman

Tao Liu

Junren Wang

Andrew P Bonifas

Tristan Thomas Trutna

Shandon Dee Hart

Sumita Basu Mitra

Kurt Jenkins

Anatoly Z Rosenflanz

David C Windorski

Pooya Saketi

Arlie R Conner

Mengfei Wang

Joseph Andrew Hoffman

Yun-Han Lee

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

Matthieu Charles Raoul Leibovici

Lan Hong Liu

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

An optical film includes a block copolymer film defining a plurality of helically shaped cavities and a plurality of helically shaped organic solid crystals positioned within the plurality of helically shaped cavities. A method of making the optical film includes obtaining a film of a block copolymer solution including a chiral block copolymer and a non-chiral block copolymer on a substrate. The method includes annealing the film, thereby forming a plurality of helical structures from the chiral block copolymer defined within the non-chiral block copolymer and removing the plurality of helical structures, thereby creating a plurality of helically shaped cavities. The method further includes forming organic solid crystals inside the plurality of helically shaped cavities, thereby forming the optical film.

Organic solid crystals having helical structures formed using negative templates

The disclosure includes near-eye optical elements configured to suppress stray infrared light. Infrared light sources illuminate an eyebox area. A combiner layer may receive reflected infrared light and direct the reflected infrared light to a camera.

Beam shaping optic for light sources

An electromechanical actuator includes a primary electrode, a secondary electrode overlying at least a portion of the primary electrode, and an electroactive layer disposed between the primary electrode and the secondary electrode, where the electroactive layer has a first curvature when zero voltage is applied between the primary electrode and the secondary electrode, and a second curvature when a non-zero voltage is applied between the primary electrode and the secondary electrode.

Deformable lens with an extended range of stability

A display system includes an optical system and a curved display disposed to emit light toward the optical system. The optical system includes at least a first optical lens, a partial reflector and a reflective polarizer. The optical system has an optical axis such that a light ray propagating along the optical axis passes through the first optical lens the partial reflector and the reflective polarizer without being substantially refracted. At least one major surface of the optical system can be 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 optical lens may have a contoured edge adapted to be placed adjacent an eye of a viewer and substantially conform to the viewer's face.

Display system

An optical system includes a partial reflector having an average optical reflectance of at least 30% in a plurality of wavelengths, an image source disposed to emit image light toward the partial reflector, and a reflective polarizer disposed proximate the partial reflector. The reflective polarizer is curved about two orthogonal axes and can include at least one layer substantially optically uniaxial at at least one location. The image light may be transmitted by the reflective polarizer after it is first reflected by the reflective polarizer. Substantially any chief light ray having at least first and second wavelengths at least 150 nm apart in the plurality of wavelengths and emitted by the image source and transmitted by a stop surface or exit pupil of the optical system has a color separation distance of less than 1.5 percent of a field of view.

Optical system

A method includes applying a stress to a polymer thin film to stretch the polymer thin film along a first in-plane direction, and subsequently applying a stress to the polymer thin film to stretch the polymer thin film along a second in-plane direction orthogonal to the first in-plane direction to form an ultra-high modulus polymer thin film. Calendaring or hot pressing of the ultra-high modulus polymer thin film may improve its optical and/or thermal properties.

Drawability enhancement in polymer thin films

An optical system including one or more optical lenses, at least one retarder layer, a reflective polarizer, and a partial reflector is provided. The at least one retarder layer may include first and second retarder layers having different wavelength dispersion curves. The at least one retarder layer may include a first retarder layer having a non-uniform fast axis orientation and/or a non-uniform retardance.

Projection systems and components thereof are described that are well suited to miniaturization. These systems and components may use one or more of the following features: a folded optical path, as in a reflective cavity or a beamsplitter; an illumination beam that is converging at the place where it impinges upon the spatial light modulator; a beamsplitter that uses opposed prisms of substantially different sizes; a beamsplitter whose obliquely disposed partial reflector defines a first rectangular reference space, and where at least a portion of the light source or at least a portion of the projector lens is disposed within such first rectangular reference space; a system in which a ratio of areas of the first rectangular reference space and a second rectangular reference space is within a specified range, where the second rectangular reference space is just large enough to encompass the optical components of the projector; a system in which the projector lens is small compared to the spatial light modulator.

Compact polarized illuminators using reflective polarizers

The disclosed optical lens assemblies may include a pre-strained deformable element that exhibits a non-uniform mechanical strain or stress profile, a structural support element coupled to the pre-strained deformable element, and a deformable medium positioned between the pre-strained deformable element and the structural support element. Related head-mounted displays and methods of fabricating such optical lens assemblies are also disclosed.

Optical lens assemblies and related methods

Outcoupling elements are disposed with a transparent layer. A transparent waveguide structure receives non-visible light and delivers the non-visible light to the outcoupling elements. The outcoupling elements outcouple the non-visible light as non-visible illumination light.

Waveguide structure and outcoupling elements

Growing community of inventors

Saint Paul, MN, United States of America

Andrew John Ouderkirk