Virtual and augmented reality systems and methods

• US 10,690,826 B2
• Filed: 06/14/2016
• Issued: 06/23/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Magic Leap, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Magic Leap, Inc.
• Inventors: Klug, Michael Anthony, Schowengerdt, Brian T., Miller, Michael Nevin, Singh, Vikramjit, Peroz, Christophe, St. Hilaire, Pierre, Sun, Jie
• Primary Examiner(s): Empie, Nathan H
• Application Number:
  US15/182,511
• Publication Number:
  US 20170010488A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,470 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 1/002 made of materials engineered to provide properties not available in nature, e.g. metamaterials
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0112 comprising device for genereting colour display
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0125 Field-of-view increase by wavefront division
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0185 Displaying image at variable distance
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 26/103 having movable or deformable optical fibres, light guides or waveguides as scanning elements light guides per se G02B6/00
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/0081 with means for altering, e.g. enlarging, the entrance or exit pupil
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/0172 characterised by optical features
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/1006 for splitting or combining different wavelengths G02B27/1086, G02B27/141 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/283 used for beam splitting or combining
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/4272 having plural diffractive elements positioned sequentially along the optical path
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 5/1809 with pitch less than or comparable to the wavelength
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 5/1833 comprising birefringent materials birefringent elements per se G02B5/3083
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 5/3016 involving passive liquid crystal elements optical properties of liquid crystals G02F1/0063; polarising elements associated with active liquid crystal devices G02F1/133528
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/0016 Grooves, prisms, gratings, scattering particles or rough surfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/004 Scattering dots or dot-like elements, e.g. microbeads, scattering particles, nanoparticles
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/0076 Stacked arrangements of multiple light guides of the same or different cross-sectional area
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/1303 Apparatus specially adapted to the manufacture of LCDs
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/1326 Liquid crystal optical waveguides or liquid crystal cells specially adapted for gating or modulating between optical waveguides

Abstract

Methods of manufacturing a liquid crystal device including depositing a layer of liquid crystal material on a substrate and imprinting a pattern on the layer of liquid crystal material using an imprint template are disclosed. The liquid crystal material can be jet deposited. The imprint template can include surface relief features, Pancharatnam-Berry Phase Effect (PBPE) structures or diffractive structures. The liquid crystal device manufactured by the methods described herein can be used to manipulate light, such as for beam steering, wavefront shaping, separating wavelengths and/or polarizations, and combining different wavelengths and/or polarizations.

Claims

1. A method of manufacturing a waveguide structure, the method comprising:

forming a liquid crystal in-coupling optical element, wherein forming the liquid crystal in-coupling optical element comprises;

depositing a resist material on a waveguide substrate;

imprinting a pattern on the resist material using an imprint template, wherein the imprint template comprises an imprint pattern with multi-tier geometry;

jet depositing a layer of liquid crystal material on the patterned resist material such that molecules of the liquid crystal material are self-aligned to the pattern; and

immobilizing the molecules of the liquid crystal material by subjecting the liquid crystal material to an immobilization process.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein depositing the resist material includes jet depositing the resist material.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the imprint template includes surface relief features.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the imprint template includes features having a size between about 10 nm and about 200 nm.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the imprint template includes features having a size between about 20 nm and about 1 micron.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the imprint template includes PBPE structures.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the liquid crystal device includes a metasurface.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the liquid crystal device comprises a metamaterial.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the imprint template includes a grating array.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the imprint template includes curvilinear grooves or arcs.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising depositing an additional layer of liquid crystal material over the layer of liquid crystal material.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the additional layer of liquid crystal material is self-aligned to the pattern.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein a pattern is imprinted on the additional layer of liquid crystal material.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the pattern imprinted on the additional layer of liquid crystal material is different from the pattern imprinted on the resist material.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the layer of liquid crystal material aligned to the pattern imprinted on the resist material is configured to act on a first wavelength, and the pattern imprinted on the additional layer of liquid crystal material is configured to act on a second wavelength.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the imprint pattern comprises three tiers.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein depositing the resist material on the substrate comprises jet depositing a plurality of discrete droplets of the resist material.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the immobilization process comprises curing.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the curing comprises UV curing, thermal curing, or freezing.