California Institute of Technology

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Apple Inc.

Yu Horie

Andrei Faraon

Amir Arbabi

Seunghoon Han

Ehsan Arbabi

Patrick R Gill

Sungwoo Hwang

Seyedeh Mahsa Kamali

Jeffrey G Koller

Yongsung Kim

Miikka M Kangas

Changgyun Shin

Kwanghee Lee

Jeongyub Lee

Yongwan Jin

Alexander A Miles

Cheng Kai Chen

Changhuei Yang

Duhyun Lee

Enkhamgalan Dorjgotov

Graham Butler Myhre

Chanwook Baik

James E Pedder

Eric G Smith

Igor Stamenov

Xiaonan Wen

Victoria C Chan

Siddharth Shankar Hazra

MohammadSadegh Faraji-Dana

Yuan Li

Peng Lv

Mooseok Jang

Atsushi Shibukawa

Sadegh Faraji-Dana

Mahsa Seyedeh Kamali

EnkhAmgalan Dorjgotov

Maxwell T Thrun

Joshua J Siegel

A pair of eyeglasses may include one or more adjustable lenses. An adjustable lens may include a stack of liquid crystal cells with passive matrix electrode arrays. Each passive matrix electrode array may include a pair of orthogonal electrodes that are rotated relative to other pairs of orthogonal electrodes in the stack. Control circuitry may apply different voltage profiles to the passive matrix electrode arrays to create the desired lens characteristics in the adjustable lens. The voltage profiles may be based on a stored look-up table that maps different target lens characteristics to different voltage profiles for the passive matrix electrode arrays. The target lens characteristics may include at least one of a target lens power and a target optical aberration correction. The look-up table may be based on information gathered during design and manufacturing using numerical optimization techniques.

Tunable lens systems with passive matrix electrode arrays

A system for gathering fixation distance calibration data may include eyeglasses with adjustable lenses and an electronic device with a depth sensor. During fixation distance calibration operations, a user wearing the eyeglasses may view the electronic device while the electronic device provides instructions for the user to hold the electronic device at different distances from the user. At each distance, a depth sensor in the electronic device may determine the distance to the eyeglasses and a camera in the eyeglasses may be used to determine a distance between the user's pupils. The calibration measurements may be used to generate calibration data that maps different pupil locations to different fixation distances. The calibration data may be stored in the eyeglasses so that control circuitry in the eyeglasses can determine a user's fixation distance and adjust lens power accordingly without requiring an outward facing depth sensor in the eyeglasses.

System for calibrating adjustable lenses

A pair of eyeglasses may include one or more adjustable lenses that are each configured to align with a respective one of a user's eyes. The adjustable lenses may each include electrically modulated optical material such as one or more liquid crystal cells. The liquid crystal cells may include arrays of electrodes that extend along one, two, three, four, or more than four directions. Control circuitry may apply control signals to the array of electrodes in each liquid crystal cell to produce a desired phase profile. Each lens may be foveated such that portions of the lens within the user's gaze exhibit a different phase profile than portions of the lens outside of the user's gaze. The control circuitry may adjust the location of the optically distinct area so that it remains aligned with the user's gaze.

Tunable and foveated lens systems

An image sensor includes a first light sensor layer including light sensing cells configured to sense first light of an incident light and generate electrical signals based on the sensed first light, and a color filter array layer disposed on the first light sensor layer, and including color filters respectively facing the light sensing cells. The image sensor further includes a second light sensor layer disposed on the color filter array layer, and configured to sense second light of the incident light and generate an electrical signal based on the sensed second light. Each of the color filters includes a nanostructure including a first material having a first refractive index, and a second material having a second refractive index greater than the first refractive index, the first material and the second material being alternately disposed with a period.

Image sensor including nanostructure color filter

A pair of eyeglasses may include one or more adjustable lenses that are each configured to align with a respective one of a user's eyes. The adjustable lenses may each include electrically modulated optical material such as one or more liquid crystal cells, each having a phase profile that is adjusted using patterned electrodes. Analog voltages may be provided to the patterned electrodes through variable-resistance conductive paths that are each coupled to a subset of the patterned electrodes. Digital voltage selection circuitry may be used to select which analog voltage to apply to each of the variable-resistance conductive paths from a predetermined set of analog voltages that are generated off of the lens. The digital voltage selection circuitry may include an array of multiplexers, each of which selects a desired voltage based on control signals received from digital control circuitry such a shift register and/or a decoder.

Tunable lens systems with voltage selection circuitry

A pair of eyeglasses may include one or more adjustable lenses that are each configured to align with a respective one of a user's eyes. The adjustable lenses may include a foveated liquid crystal adjustable lens stacked with a non-liquid-crystal adjustable lens such as a fluid-filled lens or an Alvarez lens. The foveated adjustable lens may include electrically modulated optical material such as one or more liquid crystal cells. The liquid crystal cells may include arrays of electrodes that extend along one, two, three, four, or more than four directions. Control circuitry may apply control signals to the array of electrodes in each liquid crystal cell to produce a desired phase profile. Each lens may be foveated such that portions of the lens within the user's gaze exhibit a different phase profile than portions of the lens outside of the user's gaze.

A solution containing a target molecule and a reference molecule is illuminated to obtain Raman signals. An optical metasurface is used as a diffractive optical element to split the Raman signal from the target molecule and the Raman signal from the reference molecule. The target and reference Raman signals can be detected at different locations with different photodetectors, and the target molecule concentration in the solution is determined by comparing the target and reference Raman signals.

Planar diffractive device with matching diffraction spectrum

A lens module in a head-mounted device may include a fluid-filled chamber, a semi-rigid lens element that at least partially defines the fluid-filled chamber, and at least one actuator configured to selectively bend the semi-rigid lens element. The semi-rigid lens element may become rigid along a first axis when the lens element is curved along a second axis perpendicular to the first axis. Six actuators that are evenly distributed around the periphery of the semi-rigid lens element may be used to control the curvature of the semi-rigid lens element. The semi-rigid lens element may initially be planar or non-planar. For example, the semi-rigid lens element may initially have a spherically convex surface and a spherically concave surface. A tunable spherical lens may be incorporated into the lens module to offset a parasitic spherical lens power from the semi-rigid lens element.

Electronic device with a tunable lens

Complex wavefront engineering is realized through a random metasurface phase mask backed by a phase-only spatial light modulator. The metasurface consists of an array of subwavelength nanoscatterers which give the metasurface a pre-arranged disorder. Since the transmission matrix of the disordered metasurface is known, there is no need for extensive characterization measurements which are instead required in standard disordered optical devices.

Highly scattering metasurface phase masks for complex wavefront engineering

A metasurface is defined by an array of scattering elements having a U shape, where the geometrical dimensions determining the U shape are determined according to the different phase profiles that the metasurface is meant to generate in response to an incident electromagnetic wave. The metasurface, therefore, generates different phase shifts as a function of the incident electromagnetic wave.

Angle multiplexed metasurfaces

Metasurfaces comprise an array of pillars in a lattice. The dimensions of the pillars and the spacing are varied to obtain desired optical properties. The dispersionless metasurfaces can focus optical light over a broad wavelength range. Specific dispersion profiles for the metasurfaces can be designed. Gratings can be fabricated having similar properties as the array of pillars. Pillars in the metasurfaces can have different cross-section profiles.

Dispersionless and dispersion-controlled optical dielectric metasurfaces

A polarimeter for measuring a polarization rotation caused by a measurement object is provided, the polarimeter including an optically active material. The polarimeter includes a light source unit for irradiating a measurement object with light having a specific polarization; an anisotropic meta surface element for splitting reaction light, obtained by reacting the light of the specific polarization irradiated by the light source unit with the measurement object, into first and second reaction light; and a detection unit for detecting the first and second reaction light separated by the anisotropic meta surface element according to polarization. The polarization rotation caused by the measurement object may be calculated by comparing detection signals of the first and second reaction light detected by the detection unit.

Polarimeter for detecting polarization rotation

An image sensor includes an optical sensor layer including a plurality of light-sensitive cells configured to sense light to generate electrical signals, and a color filter array layer disposed on the optical sensor layer and including a plurality of color filters respectively facing the plurality of light-sensitive cells. Each of the plurality of color filters includes a nanostructure in which a first material having a first refractive index and a second material having a second refractive index higher than the first refractive index are arranged. The first material and the second material are alternatively positioned at an interval less than a central wavelength of a color of the color filter. Thus, a thin image sensor having good wavelength selectivity and suitable for obtaining high resolution images is provided.

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Pasadena, CA, United States of America

Yu Horie