Stacked light wave guides for display panels

• US 10,613,269 B2
• Filed: 07/01/2016
• Issued: 04/07/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Glendinning, Duncan, Wooster, Roland P., Zhuang, Zhiming J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chien, Lucy P
• Application Number:
  US15/201,360
• Publication Number:
  US 20180003888A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,376 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/0076 Stacked arrangements of multiple light guides of the same or different cross-sectional area
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133391 Constructional arrangement for sub-divided displays
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133601 for spatial active dimming

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a waveguide stack and associated segmented illumination display. The waveguide stack includes a number of waveguides stacked into an array to direct light from light emitting diode (LED) edge lights to a liquid crystal display (LCD) of a segmented illumination display. The waveguides are stacked with light inhibiting material between the waveguides to inhibit light transmitting through one waveguide from communicating to a second waveguide.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a display comprising a plurality of illumination segments arranged in an M×

N array, where M and N are greater than 2 and at least one of M or N is greater than 4;

a plurality of light emitting diode (LED) edge lights;

a liquid crystal display (LCD) layer; and

a waveguide stack to transmit light from the plurality of LED edge lights to the LCD layer, the waveguide stack comprising;

a plurality of waveguides arranged in a stack, each of the plurality of waveguides including an entrance pupil to transmit light from a one of the plurality of LED edge lights to an exit pupil directed at a portion of the LCD layer, the exit pupils of the plurality of waveguides disposed on a first surface of the waveguide stack, the entrance pupils of a first subset of the plurality of waveguides disposed on a second surface of the stack and the entrance pupils of a second subset of the plurality of waveguides disposed on a third surface of the stack; and

a plurality of light inhibiting layers interposed between each of the plurality of waveguides in the stack.

2. The system of claim 1, the second surface parallel to the third surface.

3. The system of claim 1, the first surface perpendicular to the second surface and the third surface and the second surface parallel to the third surface.

4. The system of claim 1, each of the second surface and the third surface comprising an N/2×

M array of entrance pupils, where M and N are greater than 2.

5. The system of claim 1, the first surface comprising an M×

N array of exit pupils, wherein at least one of M or N are greater than 4.

6. The system of claim 5, the display comprising an M×

N array of illumination segments.

7. The system of claim 1, the plurality of light inhibiting layers comprising an opaque material or a reflective material.

8. The system of claim 7, the plurality of light inhibiting layers comprising aluminum.

9. The system of claim 1, comprising:

a housing, the display disposed in the housing; and

at least one of a processing unit, radio, battery, or interface device disposed in the housing and operably coupled to the display.

10. An apparatus, comprising:

a plurality of waveguides arranged in a stack, each of the plurality of waveguides to transmit light from an entrance pupil to an exit pupil on a first surface of the stack, an entrance pupil to a first one of the plurality of waveguides on a second surface of the stack different than the first surface and an entrance pupil to a second one of the plurality of waveguides on a third surface of the stack different than the first surface and the second surface; and

a plurality of light inhibiting layers interposed between the plurality of waveguides in the stack.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, the second surface parallel to the third surface.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, the first surface perpendicular to the second surface and the third surface and the second surface parallel to the third surface.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, the entrance pupils to receive light from a light emitting diode (LED) and transmit the light to a liquid crystal display (LCD) layer of a display.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, each of the second surface and the third surface comprising an N/2×

M array of entrance pupils, where M and N are greater than 2.

15. The apparatus of claim 10, each of the plurality of waveguides comprising an exit pupil, the first surface comprising an M×

N array of exit pupils, wherein at least one of M or N are greater than 4.

16. The apparatus of claim 10, the plurality of light inhibiting layers comprising an opaque material or a reflective material.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, the plurality of light inhibiting layers comprising aluminum.

18. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the apparatus is a light guide panel layer of a display.

19. A system, comprising:

a plurality of light emitting diode (LED) edge lights;

a liquid crystal display (LCD) layer; and

a waveguide stack to transmit light from the plurality of LED edge lights to the LCD layer, the waveguide stack comprising;

a plurality of waveguides arranged in a stack, each of the plurality of waveguides including an entrance pupil to transmit light from a one of the plurality of LED edge lights to an exit pupil directed at a portion of the LCD layer, the exit pupils of the plurality of waveguides disposed on a first surface of the waveguide stack, the entrance pupils of at least a first one of the plurality of waveguides disposed on a second surface of the stack and the entrance pupils of at least a second one of the plurality of waveguides disposed on a third surface of the stack; and

a light inhibiting layer interposed between each of the plurality of waveguides in the stack.

20. The system of claim 19, the second surface parallel to the third surface.

21. The system of claim 19, the first surface perpendicular to the second surface and the third surface and the second surface parallel to the third surface.

22. The system of claim 19, each of the second surface and the third surface comprising an N/2×

M array of entrance pupils, where M and N are greater than 2.

23. The system of claim 19, the first surface comprising an M×

N array of exit pupils, wherein at least one of M or N are greater than 4.

24. The system of claim 23, comprising a display comprising an M×

N array of illumination segments.

25. The system of claim 19, the light inhibiting layers comprising an opaque material or a reflective material.

26. The system of claim 19, the light inhibiting layers comprising aluminum.