Segmented diffractive optical elements for a head wearable display
First Claim
1. An optical combiner for a head-wearable display, comprising:
- an eyepiece body having an eye-ward side and an external scene side; and
a plurality of diffractive optical element (“
DOE”
) segments disposed within the eyepiece body, wherein the DOE segments are at least partially reflective to image light incident through the eye-ward side of the eyepiece body and at least partially transmissive to external scene light incident through the external scene side of the eyepiece body, wherein the DOE segments are disjoint from each other and each of the DOE segments is a diffraction grating disposed along a different disjoint surface within the eyepiece body that is oriented at a different angle relative to the different disjoint surfaces of the other DOE segments, wherein the plurality of DOE segments operate to magnify and reflect the image light incident from an off-axis position to an eyebox sized area,wherein each of the different disjoint surfaces is a curved surface and each of the DOE segments is a reflective diffraction grating disposed on a different disjoint curved surface, wherein each of the DOE segments is a hybrid optical element that provides optical power in reflection due in a first part to a curvature of the curved surface and due in a second part to diffraction from the reflective diffraction grating disposed on the curved surface.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An optical combiner for a head-wearable display includes an eyepiece body and a plurality of diffractive optical element (“DOE”) segments. The eyepiece body has an eye-ward side and an external scene side. The DOE segments are disposed within the eyepiece body and are at least partially reflective to image light incident through the eye-ward side of the eyepiece body and at least partially transmissive to external scene light incident through the external scene side of the eyepiece body. The DOE segments are disjoint from each other and each is disposed along a different disjoint surface within the eyepiece body that is oriented at a different angle relative to the other DOE segments. The plurality of DOE segments operate to magnify and reflect the image light incident from an off-axis position to an eyebox sized area.
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Citations
15 Claims
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1. An optical combiner for a head-wearable display, comprising:
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an eyepiece body having an eye-ward side and an external scene side; and a plurality of diffractive optical element (“
DOE”
) segments disposed within the eyepiece body, wherein the DOE segments are at least partially reflective to image light incident through the eye-ward side of the eyepiece body and at least partially transmissive to external scene light incident through the external scene side of the eyepiece body, wherein the DOE segments are disjoint from each other and each of the DOE segments is a diffraction grating disposed along a different disjoint surface within the eyepiece body that is oriented at a different angle relative to the different disjoint surfaces of the other DOE segments, wherein the plurality of DOE segments operate to magnify and reflect the image light incident from an off-axis position to an eyebox sized area,wherein each of the different disjoint surfaces is a curved surface and each of the DOE segments is a reflective diffraction grating disposed on a different disjoint curved surface, wherein each of the DOE segments is a hybrid optical element that provides optical power in reflection due in a first part to a curvature of the curved surface and due in a second part to diffraction from the reflective diffraction grating disposed on the curved surface. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A head wearable display for combing image light with external scene light, the head wearable display comprising:
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an image source to generate the image light; a diffractive optical combiner including; an eyepiece body having an eye-ward side and an external scene side; and a plurality of diffractive optical element (“
DOE”
) segments disposed within the eyepiece body, wherein the DOE segments are at least partially reflective to the image light incident through the eye-ward side of the eyepiece body and at least partially transmissive to external scene light incident through the external scene side of the eyepiece body, wherein the DOE segments are disjoint from each other and each of the DOE segments is a diffraction grating disposed along a different disjoint surface within the eyepiece body that is oriented at a different angle relative to the different disjoint surfaces of the other DOE segments, wherein the plurality of DOE segments operate to magnify and reflect the image light incident from an off-axis position to an eyebox sized area, wherein each of the different disjoint surfaces is a curved surface and each of the DOE segments is a reflective diffraction grating disposed on a different disjoint curved surface, wherein each of the DOE segments is a hybrid optical element that provides optical power in reflection due in a first part to a curvature of the curved surface and due in a second part to diffraction from the reflective diffraction grating disposed on the curved surface; anda frame assembly to support the image source and the diffractive optical combiner for wearing on a head of a user with the diffractive optical combiner positioned in front of an eye of the user. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. An optical combiner, comprising:
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an eyepiece body having an eye-ward side and an external scene side; and a plurality of diffractive optical element (“
DOE”
) segments disposed within the eyepiece body, wherein the DOE segments are at least partially reflective to image light incident through the eye-ward side of the eyepiece body and at least partially transmissive to external scene light incident through the external scene side of the eyepiece body, wherein each of the DOE segments corresponds to a different portion of a hybrid optical element having a diffraction grating that follows a curved surface to correct for optical aberrations induced in reflected image light due to off-axis illumination, wherein the DOE segments are disjoint from each other and each of the DOE segments is disposed along a different disjoint surface within the eyepiece body and repositioned relative to their corresponding different portions of the hybrid optical element to reduce a collective thickness of the DOE segments relative to the hybrid optical element along a dimension extending from the eye-ward side to the external scene side,wherein each of the different disjoint surfaces is a curved surface and each of the DOE segments is a reflective diffraction grating disposed on a different disjoint curved surface, wherein each of the DOE segments is a hybrid optical element that provides optical power in reflection due in a first part to a curvature of the curved surface and due in a second part to diffraction from the reflective diffraction grating disposed on the curved surface.
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Specification