Optical design of a thin curved lightguide and manufacturing using ophthalmic approaches

Ozan Cakmakci; Oscar A. Martinez; Jerry Carollo

doi:10.1117/12.2530526

21 June 2019 Optical design of a thin curved lightguide and manufacturing using ophthalmic approaches

Ozan Cakmakci, Oscar A. Martinez, Jerry Carollo

Proceedings Volume 11062, Digital Optical Technologies 2019; 110620H (2019) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2530526
Event: SPIE Digital Optical Technologies, 2019, Munich, Germany

Abstract

We present an underexplored variation of the classical optical freeform prism design that incorporates 3 optical surfaces. This optical architecture can make use of one, two, or three freeform surfaces. Our initial prototype uses a single freeform surface along with a sphere and a at surface to simplify manufacturing complexity. There are two key contributions in this paper that to our knowledge have not been achieved previously: 1) the design of a thin, 4 mm to 1 mm gradient thickness, curved freeform lightguide (nearly 4x thinner than the original freeform prism), and 2) lightguide fabrication utilizing ophthalmic machines. This particular optical design makes combined use of total internal reflections and partial reflections. The advantages of this optical architecture include the curved optical surfaces that eliminate the optical collimator requirement in at lightguides, a relatively large eyebox, and a manufacturing approach that reuses the standard ophthalmic process for fabricating the eyeside and worldside optical surfaces. The limitations of the optical design are low efficiency (~ 5%), multiple image artifacts, and lack of optical see-through.

Conference Presentation

Citation Download Citation

Ozan Cakmakci, Oscar A. Martinez, and Jerry Carollo "Optical design of a thin curved lightguide and manufacturing using ophthalmic approaches", Proc. SPIE 11062, Digital Optical Technologies 2019, 110620H (21 June 2019); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2530526

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available