IP Library › Granted Patent US 12,724,306
Granted Patent B2
US 12,724,306 · App. 18/276,177 · Granted Sep 1, 2026

Optical display system and electronics apparatus

Inventors: Kun Yin (Oviedo, FL); Ziqian He (Oviedo, FL); Shin-Tson Wu (Orlando, FL); Kun Li (Santa Clara, CA)
Assignees: University of Central Florida Research Foundation, Inc.; Goertek Inc.
G02F1/133536G02B27/0172G02B27/283G02B2027/0178G02F2201/343
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,724,306
App. No.
18/276,177
Granted
Sep 1, 2026
Kind
B2
Abstract

An optical display system and an electronics apparatus are disclosed. The optical display system comprises: an image source, which generates image light; and an optical combiner, which includes two reflection-type polarization volume lenses working in a Bragg regime, wherein a first reflection-type polarization volume lens of the two reflection-type polarization volume lenses diffracts the image light of a first polarization to a first image and transmits the image light of a second polarization, and a second reflection-type polarization volume lens of the two reflection-type polarization volume lenses diffracts the image light of a third polarization to a second image and transmits the image light of a fourth polarization, the optical combiner outputs the first image and/or the second image as an combined image.

Claims (16)

1 . An optical display system, comprising:

an image source, which generates image light; and

an optical combiner, which includes two reflection-type polarization volume lenses or arrays of polarization volume lenses working in a Bragg regime, wherein the reflection-type polarization volume lenses are pinhole sized polarization volume lenses,

wherein a first reflection-type polarization volume lens of the two reflection-type polarization volume lenses or arrays of polarization volume lenses reflectively diffracts the image light of a first circular polarization to a first image and transmits the image light of a second circular polarization, and a second reflection-type polarization volume lens of the two reflection-type polarization volume lenses or arrays of polarization volume lenses reflectively diffracts the image light of a third circular polarization to a second image and transmits the image light of a fourth circular polarization, and the optical combiner outputs the first image and/or the second image as an combined image.

2 . The optical display system according to claim 1 , wherein the first circular polarization is orthogonal to the second circular polarization and is the same as or orthogonal to the third polarization, and the third circular polarization is orthogonal to the fourth circular polarization.

3 . The optical display system according to claim 1 , further comprising:

a first polarization modulator, placed between the image source and the optical combiner, wherein the first polarization modulator changes polarization states of the image light to be circular polarization and suitable for being diffracted by the first reflection-type polarization volume lens and the second reflection-type polarization volume lens, respectively, to form the first image and the second image.

4 . The optical display system according to claim 3 , wherein the first polarization modulator further comprises an electronically controlled twisted nematic (TN) or a vertical alignment (VA) cell, and changes the polarization states in time-domain or/and pixilation.

5 . The optical display system according to claim 1 , wherein the optical combiner includes N overlapped units, where N≥2, each of the N overlapped units includes an active half-wave plate and a reflection-type polarization volume lens or arrays of polarization volume lenses,

wherein the active half-wave plate in each unit is adapted to be switched between on and off states to make corresponding reflection-type polarization volume lens or arrays of polarization volume lenses diffract the image light of corresponding polarization to a respective image;

wherein the respective images diffracted by the reflection-type polarization volume lenses or arrays of polarization volume lenses of the N overlapped units are displayed with same depth and combined into the combined image; and

wherein the reflection-type polarization volume lenses or arrays of polarization volume lenses of the N overlapped units include a first unit of the two overlapped units includes said first reflection-type polarization volume lens and said second reflection-type polarization volume lens.

6 . The optical display system according to claim 1 , wherein the optical display system comprises a substrate, and the first reflection-type polarization volume lens and the second reflection-type polarization volume lens of the optical combiner are placed on the substrate and in the same plane, the first reflection-type polarization volume lens and the second reflection-type polarization volume lens are configured to receive the image light from the image source, diffract the image light with different polarization states in parallel, and generate a first virtual image and a second virtual image displayed with same depth.

7 . The optical display system according to claim 1 , wherein the image light is off axis incident light.

8 . The optical display system according to claim 1 , wherein the first image and the second image have different incident angles and/or different diffraction angles and/or different lens powers to follow a movement of a viewer's eye.

9 . An electronics apparatus, including the optical display system according to claim 1 .

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Aug 7, 2023
From: YIN, KUN; HE, ZIQIAN; WU, SHIN-TSON; LI, KUN
To: UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA RESEARCH FOUNDATION, INC.; GOERTEK INC.
Reel/Frame 064511/0687 →
Continuity (2)
Provisional Application 63146792 · Feb 8, 2021
Related Publication 20240111168A1 · Apr 4, 2024
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