Freeform optics for imaging

Rolland, Jannick P.; Davies, Matthew A.; Suleski, Thomas J.; Evans, C. J.; Bauer, Aaron; Lambropoulos, John C.; Falaggis, Konstantinos

doi:10.1364/optica.413762

Cited by 226 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 196 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Finally, to address the VAC issue, the display system needs to generate a proper accommodation cue, which often requires the modulation of image depth or wavefront, neither of which can be easily achieved in a traditional geometric optical system. While remarkable progresses have been made to adopt freeform surfaces [16][17][18] , to further advance AR and VR systems requires additional novel optics with a higher degree of freedom in structure design and light modulation. Moreover, the employed optics should be thin and lightweight.…”

Section: Tradeoffs and Potential Solutionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Augmented reality and virtual reality displays: emerging technologies and future perspectives

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

With rapid advances in high-speed communication and computation, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are emerging as next-generation display platforms for deeper human-digital interactions. Nonetheless, to simultaneously match the exceptional performance of human vision and keep the near-eye display module compact and lightweight imposes unprecedented challenges on optical engineering. Fortunately, recent progress in holographic optical elements (HOEs) and lithography-enabled devices provide innovative ways to tackle these obstacles in AR and VR that are otherwise difficult with traditional optics. In this review, we begin with introducing the basic structures of AR and VR headsets, and then describing the operation principles of various HOEs and lithography-enabled devices. Their properties are analyzed in detail, including strong selectivity on wavelength and incident angle, and multiplexing ability of volume HOEs, polarization dependency and active switching of liquid crystal HOEs, device fabrication, and properties of micro-LEDs (light-emitting diodes), and large design freedoms of metasurfaces. Afterwards, we discuss how these devices help enhance the AR and VR performance, with detailed description and analysis of some state-of-the-art architectures. Finally, we cast a perspective on potential developments and research directions of these photonic devices for future AR and VR displays.

show abstract

Section: Tradeoffs and Potential Solutionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Augmented reality and virtual reality displays: emerging technologies and future perspectives

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Freeform optics based AR NEDs, together with BS based AR NEDs, rely on binocular parallax to generate depth perception for the viewers and the optical power of the combiners are usually fixed. Therefore, these designs always suffer from VAC issue (Zabels, 2019;Zhan et al, 2020;Rolland et al, 2021). To solve VAC, some vari-focal based methods have been proposed.…”

Section: Beam Splitter and Freeform Optics Based Ar Near-eye Displaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges and Advancements for AR Optical See-Through Near-Eye Displays: A Review

Xia

Guan

Cai

et al. 2022

Front. Virtual Real.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Optical see-through near-eye display (NED) technologies for augmented reality (AR) have achieved significant advancements recently with investments from both academia and industry. Although various AR NED products have been successfully commercialized and even deployed into applications, there are still challenges with present AR NED technologies (e.g., limited eyebox, fixed focus, bulky form factors). In this review, we present a brief overview of leading AR NED technologies and then focus on the state-of-the-art research works to counter the respective key challenges with each of the leading AR NED technologies. We also introduce a number of emerging technologies that are worthy of close study.

show abstract

“…It led the designers to create structures with very complex shapes; the same goes for the mirror fixtures sometimes requiring complicated forms to reach the structure interface. On the other hand, innovative freeform mirrors proved necessary to meet the requirements of compactness and optical performance; freeform surfaces can be defined as surfaces with no axis of rotational invariance, within or beyond the optical part [10]. In size of 50 to 200mm, the MicroCarb mirrors have high freeform amplitude ranging from 100 to 1000 μm PV.…”

Section: Co-engineeringmentioning

confidence: 99%

The full-SiC optics of MICROCARB

Bougoin

Mallet

Lavenac

et al. 2021

International Conference on Space Optics — ICSO 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

To be launched in 2022, MicroCarb is a space mission project of the French Space Agency (CNES) that will measure the exchange of carbon dioxide present in the Earth's atmosphere over all regions of the globe, particularly in areas poorly covered by terrestrial instrumentation. It will be the first European mission entirely dedicated to CO2 measurement. Airbus Defence and Space has been selected by CNES to design, develop and qualify the MicroCarb instrument able to monitor very precisely CO2 concentrations, with an accuracy better than 1 part per million. It is an infrared passive spectrometer operating in four spectral bands and including a unique imaging channel. To meet the need for unprecedented stability, Airbus Defence and Space turned to a full-SiC solution for the mirrors and the structural elements of the instrument. These optics are embarked on the Myriades microsat platform which allocates them a low volume. This led the designers to squeeze the instruments into a compact volume and thus to design complex three-dimensional structures and also to implement mirrors of high freeform amplitudes. The present paper presents the manufacturing approach for such highly complex silicon carbide (SiC) parts, especially the grinding of complex interfaces and very precise freeform mirror blanks ready for polishing.

show abstract

Freeform optics for imaging

Cited by 226 publications

References 196 publications

Augmented reality and virtual reality displays: emerging technologies and future perspectives

Augmented reality and virtual reality displays: emerging technologies and future perspectives

Challenges and Advancements for AR Optical See-Through Near-Eye Displays: A Review

The full-SiC optics of MICROCARB

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About