Projection display with electrically controlled waveguide-routing

• US 5,724,463 A
• Filed: 02/07/1997
• Issued: 03/03/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/1994
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Gemfire Corp. (Medtronic Plc)
• Original Assignee: Deacon Research
• Inventors: Dryer, Mark J., Bischel, William K., Field, Simon J., Brinkman, Michael J., Deacon, David A. G., DeWath, Edward J.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGO, HUNG NHAT
• Application Number:
  US08/798,312
• Time in Patent Office: 389 Days
• Field of Search: 385/8, 385/9, 385/10, 385/14, 385/16, 385/17, 385/18, 385/27, 385/36, 385/37, 385/39, 385/47, 385/50, 385/901
• US Class Current: 385/27
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/035 in an optical waveguide structure
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/225 in an optical waveguide structure
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/29 for the control of the position or the direction of light beams, i.e. deflection
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/2955 by controlled diffraction or phased-array beam steering controlled diffraction for optical waveguide switching G02F1/313
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/3132 of directional coupler type
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/3137 with intersecting or branching waveguides, e.g. X-switches and Y-junctions
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/3558 Poled materials, e.g. with periodic poling; Fabrication of domain inverted structures, e.g. for quasi-phase-matching [QPM]
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 7/1245 the waveguides including means for electro-optical or acousto-optical deflection
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 385/901 Illuminating or display apparatus

Abstract

A projection display is based on a new switching technology for routing laser light among a set of optical waveguides and coupling that light toward the viewer. The switching technology is based on poled electro-optical structures. The display technology is versatile enough to cover application areas spanning the range from miniature high resolution computer displays to large screen displays for high definition television formats. The invention combines the high brightness and power efficiency inherent in visible semiconductor diode laser sources with a new waveguide electro-optical switching technology to form a dense two-dimensional addressable array of high brightness light emissive pixels. This invention provides an all solid-state, full color, high resolution projection display suitable for displaying computer generated information and full motion HDTV.

Claims

1. An optical beam routing structure comprising:

a solid material for conveying optical energy;

a distribution waveguide segment traversing said solid material along a plane of said solid material;

at least one pixel waveguide segment traversing said solid material along a plane of said solid material and each abutting said distribution waveguide segment at an intersection region;

at least one passive optical energy router being disposed at said intersection region, said passive optical energy router to reflect a portion of said optical energy from said distribution waveguide segment into said pixel waveguide segment;

an optical modulator for each said at least one pixel waveguide segment for individually modulating said portion of said optical energy; and

an optical collection element coupled to receive optical energy projected out of said plane for focusing said optical energy at a remote projection surface.

2. The optical beam routing structure according to claim 1, further comprising:

an output waveguide segment coupled to receive optical energy directed from said at least one pixel waveguide segment; and

optical reflector means disposed at selected locations on said plane in line with said output waveguide segment for projecting optical energy out of said plane.

3. The structure according to claim 1 wherein a plurality of said passive optical routers are disposed along said distribution waveguide segment, each one of said passive optical routers passing a selective amount of optical energy and reflecting a complementary selective amount of optical energy, said selective amounts being established according to a desired distribution pattern.

4. A display device including:

a solid material for conveying optical energy;

at least a first electrically-conductive material forming a first electrode, said first electrode confronting said solid material;

an optical frequency source means including an optical exciter of a first frequency and a frequency doubler means coupled to be excited by said optical exciter;

at least one pixel waveguide segment traversing said solid material along a plane of said solid dielectric material;

a plurality of output waveguide segments traversing said solid material along said plane, said output waveguide segments abutting said pixel waveguide segment at a plurality of intersections;

a plurality of electrically-controlled optical redirectors, each optical redirector being disposed transverse of one of said intersections, said optical redirectors to reflect optical energy from said pixel waveguide segment into said output waveguide segments; and

an optical collection element coupled to receive optical energy projected out of said plane for focusing said optical energy at a remote projection surface.

5. The display device according to claim 4 further comprising:

phosphor target means disposed at selected pixel locations on said plane in line with said output waveguide segments for reradiating optical energy out of said plane in response to optical energy excitation, wherein one optical redirector is provided for each phosphor target means.

6. The display according to claim 4 further comprising:

an optical reflector means disposed at each pixel location on said plane in line with selected output waveguide segments for projecting optical energy out of said plane adjacent said phosphor target means.

7. The device according to claim 4 wherein said frequency doubler means is a periodic poled structure in said solid material.