Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Pasi Petteri Pietilae

Tuomas Vallius

Jani Kari Tapio Tervo

Tuomas Heikki Sakari Vallius

A waveguide display assembly comprises a waveguide, including an in-coupling grating configured to in-couple light of a first wavelength band emitted by a light source into the waveguide, and cause propagation of the light of the first wavelength band through the waveguide via total internal reflection. An out-coupling grating is configured to out-couple the light of the first wavelength band from the waveguide and toward a user eye. One or more diffractive gratings are disposed along an optical path between the in-coupling grating and the out-coupling grating, the one or more diffractive gratings configured to diffract light outside the first wavelength band out of the waveguide and away from the user eye.

Waveguide display assembly

An extended field of view (FOV) is provided by an exit pupil expander in a near-eye display system that uses a waveguide with multiple diffractive optical elements (DOEs) for in-coupling light, expanding the pupil in two directions, and out-coupling light to a system user's eye. Left and right in-coupling DOEs in-couple pupils respectively produced by a pair of imagers&#x2014;one imager provides a left portion of the FOV and the other imager provides the right portion. The left portion and right portion of the FOV respectively propagate in a left and right intermediate DOEs which expand the pupil in a first direction and diffract light to an out-coupling DOE. The out-coupling DOE expands the pupil in a second direction, stitches the extended FOV together by combining the left and right portions of the FOV produced by the imagers, and out-couples the extended FOV to the user's eye.

Extended field of view in near-eye display using optically stitched imaging

In a near-eye optical display system comprising a waveguide and diffractive optical elements (DOEs) configured for in-coupling, exit pupil expansion, and out-coupling, a wide-spectrum imager generates imaging light that is in-coupled to the system with an input pupil having an extended field of view (FOV). Wide-spectrum imaging light impinges on the in-coupling DOE over a range of incidence angles. As chromatic dispersion in the in-coupling DOE causes different wavelengths to propagate with different angles, for a given input pupil incidence angle, at least a portion of the imaging light spectrum meets a critical angle condition that enables propagation with total internal reflection (TIR) in the waveguide without leakage to the outside. Thus, different parts of the imaging light spectrum can be used for different regions of the FOV.

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