Two-dimensional/three-dimensional (2D/3D) switchable display backlight and electronic display

1. A two-dimensional/three-dimensional (2D/3D) switchable display backlight comprising:

a plate light guide configured to guide light from a light source as a guided light beam;

an array of multibeam diffraction gratings spaced apart from one another along the plate light guide, each multibeam diffraction grating of the multibeam diffraction grating array comprising a plurality of diffractive features and being configured to diffractively couple out a portion of the guided light beam and to direct the coupled-out portion away from the plate light guide, the diffractively coupled-out portion comprising a plurality of light beams having different principal angular directions; and

a switchable diffuser located to intercept the plurality of light beams, the switchable diffuser being configured to selectably either pass light of a light beam of the plurality or scatter the light beam,

wherein the plurality of light beams that is diffractively coupled-out of the multibeam diffraction gratings is configured to support presentation of an autostereoscopic image in a three-dimensional (3-D) mode.

2. An electronic display comprising the 2D/3D switchable display backlight of claim 1 , wherein the diffractively coupled-out portion of the guided light beam is light corresponding to a pixel of the electronic display, the pixel being switchable to either a 3-D pixel of the electronic display or a two-dimensional (2-D) electronic display pixel using the switchable diffuser.

3. The electronic display of claim 2 , further comprising a light valve configured to modulate a light beam of the plurality of light beams, the multibeam diffraction grating being between the light valve and the plate light guide.

4. The electronic display of claim 3 , wherein the switchable diffuser is between the multibeam diffraction grating and the light valve.

5. The 2D/3D switchable display backlight of claim 1 , wherein the multibeam diffraction grating comprises a chirped diffraction grating.

6. The 2D/3D switchable display backlight of claim 5 , wherein the chirped diffraction grating is a linearly chirped diffraction grating.

7. The 2D/3D switchable display backlight of claim 1 , wherein the multibeam diffraction grating is at a surface of the plate light guide, the multibeam diffraction grating having diffractive features comprising one or both of curved grooves in the plate light guide surface and curved ridges on the plate light guide surface, the diffractive features being spaced apart from one another.

8. The 2D/3D switchable display backlight of claim 1 , wherein the switchable diffuser has electronically controlled, selectable states comprising a first state to pass the light beam and a second state to scatter the light beam.

9. The 2D/3D switchable display backlight of claim 1 , wherein the switchable diffuser comprises a polymer dispersed liquid crystal electronic diffuser.

10. A two-dimensional/three-dimensional (2D/3D) switchable electronic display, comprising:

a plate light guide configured to guide light from a light source as a guided light beam;

an array of multibeam diffraction gratings spaced apart from one another at a surface of the plate light guide, each multibeam diffraction grating of the multibeam diffraction grating array comprising a plurality of diffractive features and being configured to diffractively couple out a portion of the guided light beam as a plurality of light beams having a corresponding plurality of different principal angular directions;

a light valve array configured to modulate light corresponding to light beams of the light beam plurality to provide a plurality of simultaneous views of a multiview image in a three-dimensional (3-D) mode; and

a switchable diffuser configured to selectably either pass a light beam of the light beam plurality to provide a 3-D pixel or scatter the light beam to provide a two-dimensional (2-D) pixel of the 2D/3D switchable electronic display.

11. The 2D/3D switchable electronic display of claim 10 , wherein a multibeam diffraction grating of the multibeam diffraction grating array is a chirped diffraction grating having curved diffractive features.

12. The 2D/3D switchable electronic display of claim 10 , wherein the light valve array comprises a plurality of liquid crystal light valves.

13. The 2D/3D switchable electronic display of claim 10 , wherein the switchable diffuser is located between the light valve array and the array of multibeam diffraction gratings.

14. The 2D/3D switchable electronic display of claim 10 , wherein the switchable diffuser is located adjacent to an output of the light valve array to selectably either pass or scatter modulated light.

15. The 2D/3D switchable electronic display of claim 10 , wherein the switchable diffuser is spaced apart from the array of multibeam diffraction gratings by a distance at which a light beam of the light beam plurality intersects another light beam of the light beam plurality to mitigate walk-off.

16. The 2D/3D switchable electronic display of claim 10 , wherein the switchable diffuser comprises a plurality of different regions across a display area of the 2D/3D switchable electronic display, the switchable diffuser being separately configured to selectably either pass or scatter the light beam in a first region of the plurality of regions and selectably either pass or scatter the light beam in a second region of the plurality of regions.

17. A method of 2D/3D switchable electronic display operation, the method comprising:

guiding light in a plate light guide as a beam of light at a non-zero propagation angle;

diffractively coupling out a portion of the guided light beam to produce a plurality of light beams directed away from the plate light guide in a corresponding plurality of different principal angular directions using an array of multibeam diffraction gratings spaced apart from one another along the plate light guide, each multibeam diffraction grating of the multibeam diffraction grating array diffractively coupling out a separate portion of the guided light to produce a corresponding separate plurality of the light beams; and

selectably either passing or scattering light beams of the light beam plurality using a switchable diffuser,

wherein selectably passed light beams of the light beam plurality represent three-dimensional (3-D) pixels of the 2D/3D switchable electronic display and selectably scattered light beams of the light beam plurality represent two-dimensional (2-D) pixels of the 2D/3D switchable electronic display, the 3-D pixel forming a portion of an autostereoscopic image.

18. The method of 2D/3D switchable electronic display operation of claim 17 , further comprising modulating light of the plurality of light beams using a plurality of light valves.

19. The method of 2D/3D switchable electronic display operation of claim 18 , wherein selectably either passing or scattering light beams of the plurality is performed after modulating light of the plurality of light beams.

20. The method of 2D/3D switchable electronic display operation of claim 18 , wherein the plurality of light valves comprises a plurality of liquid crystal light valves, and wherein the multibeam diffraction grating used in diffractive coupling out comprises a chirped diffraction grating having curved diffractive features.

21. The method of 2D/3D switchable electronic display operation of claim 17 , wherein the switchable diffuser is an electronic variable diffuser selected from a polymer dispersed liquid crystal diffuser, an electrophoretic-based diffuser or a variable diffuser based on electrowetting.