Waveguide illumination of a spatial light modulator
A system comprising a waveguide including an in-coupler and an out-coupler, and a digital micromirror device (DMD) to receive the light from the waveguide via the out-coupler, and to direct modulated light through the waveguide, the modulated light passing through the waveguide before being directed toward a user's eye.
1. A head-mounted display system comprising:
a light source;
a waveguide comprising:
a first in-coupler, to in-couple a first light into the waveguide;
a second in-coupler, to in-couple a second light;
a first out-coupler, to out-couple the first light into the waveguide; and
a second out-coupler, to out-couple the second light;
wherein the first out-coupler and the second out-coupler are proximate and non-overlapping;
a spatial light modulator (SLM) to receive the first light and the second light from the waveguide via the first out-coupler and the second out-coupler, and to direct modulated light representing an image for display to a user;
wherein the first out-coupler and the second out-coupler illuminate separate portions of the SLM.
2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
the first in-coupler comprising a first diffractive element;
a second diffractive element, the second diffractive element receiving the light from the first diffractive element, expanding the light, and directing the expanded light down the waveguide toward the first out-coupler; and
the first out-coupler comprising a third diffractive element.
3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first light and the second light comprise different wavelengths.
4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the first in-coupler is optimized for a first set of wavelengths, and the second in-coupler is optimized for a second set of wavelengths.
5. The system of claim 1 , wherein one or more of the first in-coupler, the second in-coupler, the first out-coupler, and the second out-coupler is a non-diffractive element.
6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the non-diffractive element comprises a transflective mirror.
7. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a third in-coupler and a fourth in-coupler, associated with a third out-coupler and a fourth out-coupler, such that a quarter of the SLM may be illuminated at a time.
8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first out-coupler a top out-coupling element on a top of the waveguide and the second out-coupler is a bottom out-coupling element on a bottom of the waveguide.
9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first out-coupler and the second out-coupler have different sizes.
10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the modulated light passes through the waveguide before being directed toward the user.
11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the light source is a non-collimated light source.
12. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
fiberoptics to redirect the light.
13. A head-mounted display system comprising:
a non-collimated light source;
a waveguide including a first in-coupler and a first out-coupler to transmit non-collimated light, wherein one or more of the first in-coupler and the first out-coupler are non-diffractive, the waveguide further including a second in-coupler and a second out-coupler; and
a spatial light modulator (SLM) to receive the non-collimated light from the waveguide via the first out-coupler, and to direct modulated, non-collimated light through the waveguide, the modulated, non-collimated light representing an image for display to a user, the modulated, non-collimated light passing through the waveguide before being directed toward the user;
wherein the first out-coupler and the second out-coupler illuminate separate portions of the SLM.
14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the first out-coupler and the second out-coupler have different sizes.
15. The system of claim 13 , wherein the first out-coupler is a top out-coupling element on a top of the waveguide and the second out-coupler is a bottom out-coupling element on a bottom of the waveguide.
16. The system of claim 13 , wherein one or more of the first in-coupler and the first out-coupler comprises a non-diffractive element, the non-diffractive element comprising one of: transflective mirror, a prism, and a reflective element.
17. A head-mounted display system comprising:
a non-collimated light source;
a waveguide including a first in-coupler and a first out-coupler to transmit non-collimated light;
the waveguide including a second out-coupler, wherein the first out-coupler and the second out-coupler are different sizes;
a spatial light modulator (SLM) to receive the non-collimated light and to direct modulated, non-collimated light through the waveguide, the modulated, non-collimated light representing an image for display to a user, the modulated, non-collimated light passing through the waveguide before being directed toward the user.
18. The system of claim 17 , further comprising:
the waveguide further including a second in-coupler;
wherein the first out-coupler and the second out-coupler illuminate separate portions of the SLM.
19. The system of claim 18 , wherein one or more of the first in-coupler, the second in-coupler, the first out-coupler, and the second out-coupler is a non-diffractive element.
20. The system of claim 17 , further comprising:
the waveguide further comprising a second in-coupler wherein a first light in-coupled into the first in-coupler, and a second light in-coupled into the second in-coupler comprise different wavelengths.