Manufacture of low refractive index plastic waveguide with wide angle of view

Tetsuya Zenko; Shogo Kawano; Yukinobu Nishio; Kazuya Yamamoto; Dai Okamoto; Toshimitsu Takaoka; Makoto Okada

doi:10.1117/12.2649616

16 March 2023 Manufacture of low refractive index plastic waveguide with wide angle of view

Tetsuya Zenko, Shogo Kawano, Yukinobu Nishio, Kazuya Yamamoto, Dai Okamoto, Toshimitsu Takaoka, Makoto Okada

Proceedings Volume 12449, Optical Architectures for Displays and Sensing in Augmented, Virtual, and Mixed Reality (AR, VR, MR) IV; 1244903 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2649616
Event: SPIE AR | VR | MR, 2023, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

Polymers with high mass-productivity are the best material for waveguide in AR/VR/MR smart glasses, for which demand is increasing year by year. However, polymer waveguides are difficult to obtain a wide field of view because of its lower refractive index compared to glass. Since a wide field of view can be obtained even with polymer waveguides by dividing the field of view, we performed optical design, mold design, mold processing, and injection molding of an injection moldable surface relief grating type waveguide. We used a polymer with relatively high refractive index and good flowability to improve the transferability of diffraction grating and design flexibility. The diffraction gratings manufactured on a trial basis were measured and fed back into the optical design to improve the efficiency of the waveguide. Waveguide and laser beam scanning module were combined to image the projection image. The captured image looks like a projected image through a screen door because the tiling length is larger than the pupil size. The future challenge is to improve the quality of the projected image by achieving thinner thickness and higher precision molding.

Conference Presentation

Citation Download Citation

Tetsuya Zenko, Shogo Kawano, Yukinobu Nishio, Kazuya Yamamoto, Dai Okamoto, Toshimitsu Takaoka, and Makoto Okada "Manufacture of low refractive index plastic waveguide with wide angle of view", Proc. SPIE 12449, Optical Architectures for Displays and Sensing in Augmented, Virtual, and Mixed Reality (AR, VR, MR) IV, 1244903 (16 March 2023); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2649616

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