阅读说明：本技术 光学器件、系统及光学设备 (Optical device, system and optical apparatus ) 是由 谈顺毅 陈理军 于 2020-12-28 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明提供了一种光学器件、系统及光学设备,所述光学器件由多个部分部件组成,满足预定特性的光线在所述多个部分部件的交界面上按一种方式传播,不满足所述预定特性的光线在所述交接面上按另一种方式传播。本发明采用至少部分齿面契合的部分部件,环境光等效于透过一块平板介质,并不受部分部件影响而改变光焦度。而图像光经一片部分部件的齿形结构反射后,等效于被具有光焦度的反射镜反射,因而其光焦度被改变。(The invention provides an optical device, system and optical apparatus, the optical device is composed of a plurality of partial members, light rays satisfying a predetermined characteristic are transmitted in one way on the interfaces of the partial members, and light rays not satisfying the predetermined characteristic are transmitted in another way on the interfaces. The invention adopts partial parts with at least partial tooth surfaces matched, and the ambient light is equivalent to penetrate through a flat medium and is not influenced by the partial parts to change the focal power. After the image light is reflected by the tooth-shaped structure of one part of the component, the image light is reflected by a reflector with focal power, so that the focal power of the image light is changed.)

1. An optical device comprising a plurality of component parts, wherein light rays meeting a predetermined characteristic propagate in one manner at interfaces of said plurality of component parts and light rays not meeting said predetermined characteristic propagate in another manner at said interfaces.

2. The optical device of claim 1, wherein the interface has an optical power for light rays satisfying a predetermined characteristic.

3. The optical device of claim 1, wherein the predetermined characteristic comprises any one or any plurality of polarization, angle, plane of incidence of light.

4. The optical device of claim 1, wherein said propagating in one manner comprises: the amount of reflected or transmitted, and/or the number of reflected transmissions experienced, and/or the proportion of reflected energy transmitted.

5. The optical device of claim 1, wherein the interface is partially or fully coated, the coating distinguishing at least one of an incident angle, a polarization direction, and a wavelength of light.

6. The optical device according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of partial members are made of the same material or a material having a difference in refractive index within a predetermined range.

7. The optical device according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of partial components are glued together using glue or manufactured using a bonding process.

8. The optical device of claim 1, wherein at least some of the interfaces of the plurality of partial members are complementary in profile.

9. An optical device as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the partial components differ in their local optical parameters.

10. The optical device of claim 9, wherein the optical parameter difference is a modulation of light caused by at least one of a surface type, a material, a refractive index, and a coating of a portion of the component.

11. The optical device of claim 1, wherein the interfaces of the plurality of partial members have microstructures.

12. The optical device of claim 11, wherein the microstructures of the interfaces of the plurality of partial members are different, wherein the microstructures of the plurality of partial members at least partially fit together.

13. The optical device of claim 11, wherein the microstructures of the portion compensate for aberrations and/or chromatic aberrations associated with the corresponding microstructure of the other portion.

14. The optical device of claim 11, wherein the microstructures are teeth-like structures.

15. The optical device of claim 1, wherein the interface profile and/or microstructure of the plurality of partial members is equivalent to any one or any plurality of spherical, aspherical, biconic, and free-form surfaces.

16. The optical device according to claim 1, wherein the interface profile and/or microstructure equivalent optical model of the plurality of partial members is axisymmetric.

17. The optical device of claim 1, wherein the interface profile and/or microstructure equivalent optical model of the plurality of partial members is not centrosymmetric.

18. The optical device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the interface profile and/or microstructure equivalent optical models of the plurality of partial members differ in mathematical expression in two directions perpendicular to each other.

19. The optical device of claim 1, wherein at least one surface of the plurality of partial members where at least one partial member does not interface with other partial members is planar.

20. The optical device according to claim 19, wherein different regions of the plane are coated with dielectric films and/or antireflection films of different refractive indices.

21. The optical device of claim 1, wherein at least one surface of the plurality of partial members where at least one partial member does not interface with other partial members is curved.

22. The optical device of claim 1, wherein at least one surface of the plurality of partial members where at least one partial member does not interface with other partial members is provided with microstructures.

23. The optical device of claim 21, wherein the curved surface has optical power.

24. The optical device of claim 23, wherein the optical power is capable of compensating for aberrations of the user's eye.

25. The optical device of claim 1, wherein the partial component comprises a fresnel mirror.

26. The optical device of claim 11, wherein the microstructures are of equal height.

27. An optical system comprising an optical device according to any one of claims 1 to 26.

28. An optical system comprising an optical device according to any one of claims 11 to 14, wherein at least one further optical device is present in the system, the further optical device having a microstructure, the microstructure of the further device corresponding to a subregion of the microstructure of the optical device and compensating for aberrations and/or chromatic aberrations of the corresponding region of the optical device.

29. An optical system according to claim 27, further comprising a spatial light modulator for dynamically adjusting a parameter of light input to the optical device.

30. An optical system according to claim 28, further comprising a spatial light modulator that modulates different optical parameters in different regions and compensates for aberrations and/or chromatic aberrations of corresponding regions of the optical device.

31. An optical system according to claim 27, further comprising a waveguide device for guiding light satisfying predetermined characteristics into the optical device.

32. An optical device comprising an optical system according to any one of claims 27 to 31.

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of optical devices, and in particular, to an optical device, system and optical apparatus.

Background

In some optical applications, such as AR displays and transparent displays, light needs to be combined, and the corresponding combined image light often needs to be modulated (e.g., compressed or expanded, focused, etc.), and the light modulated by an optical device (e.g., a lens) often needs to be transmitted for a certain distance, so that the whole optical system must occupy a certain amount of space. In some applications that are sensitive to volume, such as head-mounted AR/VR systems, mobile phones, camera lenses of wearable devices, etc., it is a design challenge to compress the volume of the optical system and improve the light efficiency.

As patent document "diffraction waveguide capable of expanding pupil and uniformly emitting light" (CN111123524A), waveguide substrate, incident grating, uniform light grating array and emergent grating; the incident grating, the light equalizing grating array and the emergent grating are sequentially arranged on the surface of the waveguide substrate at intervals, and the incident grating passes through the light equalizing grating array to the emergent grating to form a transmission light path. The light of the incident grating enters the emergent grating through the light-equalizing grating array by arranging the light-equalizing grating array on the waveguide substrate between the incident grating and the emergent grating. The prior art is often realized through a waveguide system (such as a diffraction waveguide, an array waveguide, etc.), but the waveguide itself only has a pupil expanding capability, and cannot replace optical devices such as a lens/a reflector to realize modulation functions such as compression or expansion of light, and incident light must be parallel light, which has the problems of poor system flexibility, difficulty in realizing light field display, etc., and in addition, due to multiple transmission and reflection (pupil expansion) of light on a grating or an array surface, the utilization rate of light is low, and the use requirement cannot be met often in a bright environment.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the drawbacks of the prior art, it is an object of the present invention to provide an optical device, a system and an optical apparatus.

According to the present invention there is provided an optical device comprising a plurality of component parts, light rays meeting a predetermined characteristic propagating in one way at interfaces of the component parts and light rays not meeting the predetermined characteristic propagating in another way at the interfaces.

Preferably, the interface has an optical power for light rays satisfying a predetermined characteristic.

Preferably, the predetermined characteristic includes any one or any plurality of polarization, angle, plane of incidence of light.

Preferably, said propagating in one way comprises: the number of reflected or transmitted, or experienced reflections and transmissions, or the proportion of reflected energy transmitted.

Preferably, the interface is partially or completely coated, and the coating distinguishes at least one of an incident angle, a polarization direction and a wavelength of light.

Preferably, the plurality of partial members are made of the same material or a material having a difference in refractive index within a predetermined range.

Preferably, the plurality of partial members are glued together using a glue having a refractive index difference within a predetermined range, or are manufactured using a bonding process.

Preferably, at least some of the interfaces of the plurality of partial members are complementary in profile.

Preferably, the local optical parameters of the plurality of partial components are different.

Preferably, the interfaces of the plurality of partial members have a microstructure.

Preferably, the optical parameter difference means that the light modulation is different due to at least one of the surface type, material, refractive index and coating film of the partial component.

Preferably, the microstructures are tooth-like structures. The device thickness is reduced by microstructures or teeth like structures (e.g. fresnel mirror like principle).

Preferably, the microstructures of the interfaces of the partial members differ, wherein the microstructures of the partial members at least partially fit together.

Preferably, the microstructure of the partial component compensates for the aberration and/or chromatic aberration of the corresponding microstructure of the other partial component.

Preferably, the interface profile and/or microstructure of the plurality of partial members is equivalent to any one or any plurality of spherical, aspherical, biconic, free-form surfaces.

Preferably, the interface profile and/or the microstructure equivalent optical model of the plurality of partial members is axisymmetric.

Preferably, the interface profile and/or microstructure equivalent optical model of the plurality of partial members is not centrosymmetric.

Preferably, the interface profile and/or microstructure equivalent optical models of the plurality of partial members differ in mathematical expression in two directions perpendicular to each other.

Preferably, at least one surface of the plurality of partial components, at which at least one partial component does not interface with other partial components, is a plane.

Preferably, different areas of the plane are plated with dielectric films and/or antireflection films with different refractive indexes.

Preferably, at least one surface of the plurality of partial components, at which at least one partial component does not interface with other partial components, is a curved surface.

Preferably, at least one surface of the plurality of partial components, on which at least one partial component does not interface with other partial components, is provided with a microstructure.

Preferably, the microstructures of the interfaces of the plurality of partial members are different, wherein at least parts of the microstructures are engaged with each other. Thus, the microstructure difference formed structure can be used for optical parameter modulation, such as aberration compensation.

Preferably, the curved surface has optical power.

Preferably, the optical power is capable of compensating for aberrations of the user's eye.

Preferably, the partial part comprises a fresnel mirror.

Preferably, the microstructures (e.g. teeth) of the component (e.g. fresnel mirror) are of equal height.

According to the invention, an optical system is provided, which comprises the optical device.

According to the optical system provided by the invention, the optical device comprises the optical device, at least one other optical device is arranged in the system, the other optical device is provided with a microstructure, the microstructure of the other optical device corresponds to the microstructure subarea of the optical device, and the aberration and/or color of the corresponding area of the optical device is compensated.

Preferably, a spatial light modulator is also included for dynamically adjusting the optical parameters input to the optical device, which may also be expressed in zernike or seial polynomial like mathematical polynomials.

Preferably, the optical device further comprises a spatial light modulator, and the spatial light modulator modulates different optical parameters in different regions and compensates the aberration and/or chromatic aberration of the corresponding region of the optical device. For example, the modulating the different optical parameters may be dividing a plurality of regions on the spatial light modulator, and respectively modulating different wavefronts in different regions by zernike or semidic polynomials or other mathematical expressions with different coefficients.

Preferably, a waveguide device is further included, which guides light satisfying a predetermined characteristic into the optical device.

According to the invention, an optical device is provided, comprising the optical system.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the following beneficial effects:

partial component combination with matched tooth surfaces is adopted, so that the environment light equivalently penetrates through a flat medium, and the focal power of the environment light is not changed without being influenced by partial components. After the image light is reflected by the tooth-shaped structure of one part of the component, the image light is equivalently reflected by a reflector with focal power, so that the focal power of the image light is changed to realize the modulation of the light. Furthermore, the volume is greatly reduced compared to the birdbath et al optical solution.

Drawings

Other features, objects and advantages of the invention will become more apparent upon reading of the detailed description of non-limiting embodiments with reference to the following drawings:

FIGS. 1a, 1b, 1c are top, side, and exploded views of an implementation of example 1 of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an implementation of embodiment 2 of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an implementation manner of embodiment 1 of the present invention;

fig. 4a, 4b are an exploded view, a side view, respectively, of one implementation of embodiment 1 of the present invention;

fig. 5, 6, 7, and 8 are schematic diagrams of light paths.

Detailed Description

The present invention will be described in detail with reference to specific examples. The following examples will assist those skilled in the art in further understanding the invention, but are not intended to limit the invention in any way. It should be noted that it would be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. All falling within the scope of the present invention.

Example 1

As shown in fig. 1a, 1b, and 1c, this embodiment is used as a combiner in an augmented reality display system, and is composed of two pieces of fresnel lenses with matched tooth surfaces (for gluing or bonding during manufacturing, the teeth of the fresnel lenses may be of equal height, each tooth may have a size of 10 to 30 micrometers, where the teeth may be single teeth, rows or columns of teeth in one-dimensional direction, or ring or strip of teeth with the same center, or a combination of these forms), and the optical parameters corresponding to each tooth may be independently designed (for example, the curvature corresponding to each tooth is different), where the surface of one piece of fresnel lens matched with the other piece of fresnel lens is plated with an angularly selective reflection enhancement film. One side of one of the fresnel lenses is glued with a dielectric waveguide, the refractive index of the dielectric waveguide is the same as or similar to that of the fresnel lens, the waveguide receives image light output by an image element, the image light output by the image element enters from one side of the fresnel lens through the waveguide, as shown in fig. 5, the included angle between the light propagation track of the waveguide and the surface normal of the entering side of the fresnel lens is larger than a specific angle (for example, 40 °), the ambient light enters from the other fresnel lens, and the included angle between the ambient light entering from the air and the surface normal of the fresnel lens is smaller than the total reflection angle (for example, smaller than 45 °). The image light is reflected by the angle selective reflection increasing film when entering the interface surfaces of the two Fresnel lenses due to the fact that the included angle between the image light and the normal line of the surface on one side of the Fresnel lens is large, and the environment light passes through the interface surfaces of the two Fresnel lenses without being influenced by transmission due to the fact that the included angle between the environment light and the normal line of the surface on one side of the Fresnel lens is small. Because the two Fresnel lens materials are the same and the tooth surfaces are matched, the ambient light equivalently penetrates through a flat medium and is not influenced by the Fresnel lens to change the focal power. After the image light is reflected by the tooth-shaped structure of one Fresnel mirror, the image light is equivalently reflected by a reflector with focal power, so that the focal power of the image light is changed. In this case, the pixel may be equivalently set at the focal point of the fresnel mirror (or the pixel forms an intermediate image through the optical system, the intermediate image may be imaged inside the waveguide, and the intermediate image is located at or near the focal point of the fresnel mirror, so that the image light is modulated to infinity or a specific image distance after being reflected by the fresnel mirror.

The tooth surfaces of the two fresnel mirrors in the above embodiments may be completely fitted or partially fitted, as shown in fig. 4a and 4b, the tooth profiles of the two fresnel mirrors are not completely identical, a certain gap (which may be air or a medium or optical glue filled with a certain refractive index) is left in the middle, the image light is modulated through the interface of the first fresnel mirror and enters the gap, and then enters the surface of the second fresnel mirror, the surface of the second fresnel mirror is plated with a reflection increasing film, and the image light is modulated and reflected again. The method has the advantages that a surface (a curved surface or a plane) is added in the system, and can be used for correcting the aberration or chromatic aberration of the image, so that the flexibility of system design is increased. In addition, the gap may be a small distance (e.g. several micrometers to several millimeters), so the light corresponding to each tooth of the second fresnel mirror is often modulated only by one or several teeth corresponding to the first fresnel mirror, in other words, each tooth of the second fresnel mirror can compensate for the aberration caused by the corresponding area of the first fresnel mirror, i.e. the surface shape (corresponding to the optical parameter) of each tooth of the two fresnel mirrors can be independent, and there is mutual compensation between the corresponding teeth.

In the above embodiment, another optical device (for example, another fresnel mirror with a tooth surface coated with a reflection-enhanced film, or a reflective SLM may be used, and different areas on the SLM modulate phase distributions corresponding to different optical parameters), as shown in fig. 6, may be disposed on the surface of the waveguide. Light emitted by a specific pixel point of a pixel passes through a certain optical system (such as one or more lenses or reflectors or a combination of the lenses or reflectors, or the reflectors can be used independently, and the system is internally provided with a reflecting surface with the advantage of small chromatic aberration or no chromatic aberration), is modulated and then enters a partial area of a first optical device, in this case, areas of a plurality of corresponding teeth, is modulated and then is roughly converged into a rough intermediate image in the process of total reflection propagation in a waveguide, then is propagated to a corresponding area on a second optical device, and is modulated again and then emitted for imaging. Because each pixel point of different fields on the pixel respectively corresponds to a partial area of the first optical device and a partial area on the second optical device (the partial areas can be one or more teeth/toothed belts/toothed rings and the like), optical parameters of the respective areas of the first optical device and the second optical device can be different, the respective areas of the first optical device can respectively compensate the surface type of the corresponding area of the second device (compensate aberration/chromatic aberration and the like generated after the second device modulates corresponding image light), and the optical design of different areas corresponding to different fields is realized. In addition, in this variation, the surface of the interface between the waveguide and the first optical device and/or the second optical device may be further coated with dielectric film layers with different refractive indexes (for example, several regions with a thickness of 1um and a refractive index of about 1.350, 1.380, 1.400, and 1.600) in different regions), so as to control light with different angles to exit in different regions, and finally achieve the purpose of reducing the thickness of the waveguide.

In the above embodiments, the image element (or the intermediate image) may be disposed outside the focal point of the fresnel mirror, so that the image is imaged at a certain distance (not infinity) for the viewer, but the intermediate image distance may also be dynamically modulated (e.g. by phase-modulated SLM, or a hologram/kinoform with variable object distance generated by phase-modulated SLM), for example, the former frame of image is located at the focal point, and the latter frame is offset from the focal point by a certain distance, so as to realize real-time adjustment of the imaging distance. Or the object with a plurality of different distances in the same image can be modulated to different positions relative to the Fresnel mirror through an intermediate image or directly, so that the display and dynamic adjustment of the objects with the plurality of different distances in the same image are realized. The time division multiplexing SLM can also modulate optical parameters of front and back frames to respectively correspond to different wavelengths/colors, and dynamically use different parameters to correct aberration/chromatic aberration caused by different wavelengths.

The reflection increasing film can be plated on the tooth surface of any piece of Fresnel mirror.

The Fresnel lens can be processed and formed by machining equipment (such as a diamond machine tool, a high-precision numerical control center and the like), and can also be obtained by injection molding or die pressing after a die is manufactured. The material can be glass or plastic. The two Fresnel lenses can be bonded by optical cement with similar refractive index, or can be manufactured by bonding processes such as electrostatic bonding, thermal bonding or composite bonding.

An interface between the waveguide and the combiner can be further coated with an antireflection film to increase the transmittance of image light in the waveguide entering the device. In addition, the interface of the waveguide and the combiner can be coated with film layers with different refractive indexes in different areas, so that the angle of emergent light from the corresponding area can be controlled.

The surface of the piece of fresnel mirror attached to the waveguide may also have a microstructure, as shown in fig. 3, for example, a slope with a certain angle and a period repetition is provided, so that the inclination angle of the image light relative to the interface is reduced, and the difficulty of the optical design of the interface is reduced (it is difficult to optically design a good image quality under a large off-axis condition).

Example 2

As shown in fig. 7, another combiner in an augmented reality display system is composed of two optical devices each having a matching structure (which may be an off-axis structure with a certain diopter, or a periodically repeated microstructure) on one side surface, wherein the surface matching one device with the other device is plated with a polarization-selective reflection increasing film. The image light is linearly polarized (e.g., the image element uses an LCOS device, and the image light is P light relative to the tooth surface of the fresnel lens), and is totally reflected (or partially reflected, e.g., 50% reflected, in some embodiments) when it is incident on the interface of two devices from one side of one device. Ambient light is incident on one side of the other device and strikes the interface between the two devices with the S component fully transmitted (or most, e.g., 95% transmitted), the P component fully reflected (or partially reflected and partially transmitted, e.g., 50% reflected and 50% transmitted), and the total energy of the ambient light greater than 50% transmitted (and greater than 75% transmitted in some embodiments). By controlling the transmissivity of the polarization part, the ratio of the transmission of the ambient light to the reflection of the image light can be well balanced, so that the transmissivity of the ambient light is increased as much as possible and the transparency of the device is increased on the premise of meeting the requirements of image brightness and light efficiency.

In the above embodiment, since the image light is often incident to the interface from a specific direction, the polarization increasing film may be selectively coated on the interface microstructure corresponding to the image light direction, and the interface microstructure opposite to the image light direction is not coated with the polarization increasing film (or coated with the anti-reflection film), so that the ambient light passing through the interface is completely transmitted, and the image light does not contact the surface of the micro-junction, so that the image is not affected. This can increase the transmittance of ambient light and increase transparency.

In the above embodiments, the corresponding surface of the portion of the device receiving the incident ambient light may also be formed with a non-planar surface (e.g., with a curvature) to compensate for the aberrations of the wearer's eye itself (myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, etc.), as shown in fig. 2.

The above-described embodiment can also realize the introduction of the picture element image in combination with the waveguide as described in embodiment 1.

Example 3

As shown in fig. 8, another combiner in an augmented reality display system is composed of two optical devices with a matching tooth-shaped structure on one surface. The image light enters from one surface of a sheet structure in a certain angle range and reaches the tooth-shaped surface after passing through the structure, wherein the surface of the tooth-shaped structure corresponding to the incident direction of the image light is coated with a reflection increasing film to totally reflect the image light, and for the image light, the tooth-shaped structures are equivalent to reflectors (curvature radius, cone coefficient, aspheric high-order terms and the like) with certain optical parameters. And the surface opposite to the incident direction of the image light is plated with an antireflection film (if the refractive indexes of the materials of the two devices are close to or the same, the antireflection film can also not be plated), when external environment light is incident from the other device and reaches the interface surface through the other device, the light incident on the surface coated with the reflection increasing film is reflected and cannot enter eyes of a viewer after being reflected or emergent from the original incident surface, or the reflected light enters the next surface coated with the reflection reducing coating again after passing through the surface coated with the reflection reducing coating, so that the reflected light is emitted out from the image light combining path (because the surface curvature of the adjacent teeth can be designed to be very close to or the same, the size of the teeth is also controlled within a certain size, for example, 10-30 micrometers, so that the angle and the position when the light is emitted and the angle and the position when the light is incident are almost the same, and the condition that a viewer sees an external scene clearly is not seriously influenced). And the incident ambient light coated with the antireflection film directly penetrates through the interface and is emitted into the eyes of the viewer.

In the above embodiments, the reflection increasing film is made according to a certain direction, two surfaces of the tooth-shaped structure of the device are at a certain angle (for example, close to or smaller than a right angle), and the device can be placed in a certain direction in the coating equipment (for example, in the sputtering equipment, the surface of the device to be coated is placed at an angle with the sputtering source, so that the surface of the tooth structure to be coated faces the sputtering source, the surface is perpendicular to the incoming direction of the sputtering ions, and the surface of the tooth not to be coated is blocked or parallel to the incoming direction of the sputtering ions).

In the description of the present application, it is to be understood that the terms "upper", "lower", "front", "rear", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "top", "bottom", "inner", "outer", and the like indicate orientations or positional relationships based on those shown in the drawings, and are only for convenience in describing the present application and simplifying the description, but do not indicate or imply that the referred device or element must have a specific orientation, be constructed in a specific orientation, and be operated, and thus, should not be construed as limiting the present application.

The foregoing description of specific embodiments of the present invention has been presented. It is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described above, and that various changes or modifications may be made by one skilled in the art within the scope of the appended claims without departing from the spirit of the invention. The embodiments and features of the embodiments of the present application may be combined with each other arbitrarily without conflict.