Design and experiments of planar optical light guides for virtual image displays

Abstract

Planar optical light guides that are suitable for compact, relatively large virtual image projection displays, of either see-through or non-see-through capabilities, are presented. Such light guides are comprised of three diffractive elements that are recorded on a single substrate. The basic principles, design methods, experimental procedures, calculated as well as experimental results are presented. The results reveal that a relatively large field of view and uniform luminance over the entire output image can be obtained, even when the distance from the light guide to the viewer is relatively large.