Electrowetting Lenticular Lens for a Multi-View Autostereoscopic 3D Display

Abstract

The multi-view autostereoscopic display has become a major form of technology for implementing 3D displaying because of its simple structure and good image characteristics compared with other methods. In particular, the lenticular type multi-view display has a higher luminance than the parallax barrier type display, which is a significant advantage. However, the lenticular lens is difficult to fabricate and uncontrollable in 2D–3D conversion. Here, we describe the fabrication of an electrowetting-based lenticular lens and a multi-view display system that utilizes that lens. With a lenticular shaped lens chamber and electrowetting liquids, the focal length of the lenticular lens can be controlled by applying voltage. By putting this device on a display panel, a 3D image can be observed with a convex lens state, and a 2D image is observed with a flat state. In this letter, an electrowetting lenticular lens is fabricated and a 2D and 3D mode switch multi-view display is demonstrated.