34results about "Light guides for scanning" patented technology

The present invention uses tunable or broadband integrated OPO with active or passive beam steering devices for high-speed ranging on a compact, low-cost platform. Examples of beam steering devices include grating couplers, optical phased arrays, arrayed waveguide delay lines, nanophotonic antennas, metasurfaces, etc. The beam steering device can be inside or outside of the OPO structure. Under broadband operation, the angular information is encoded in the spectral domain and vice versa, and the detector may have multiple spectral filters corresponding to different angles or a single tunable filter. The tunable filter can be electro-optic (EO) based or piezoelectric (PZT)-based. This invention can be realized across multiple material platforms with application specific parameters to optimize performance, such as bandwidth, tuning range, tuning speed, spatial / temporal resolution, polarization, field of view (FOV), etc. Scanning can be done in 1D and 2D. Multiple OPOs can be fabricated on chip with multiple beam steering devices.

A display structure (1000), a display device, and a vehicle are disclosed. The display structure (1000) comprises a waveguide (1100); an in-coupling structure (1200) configured to couple a set of input beams (1020) into the waveguide (1100) as a set of in-coupled beams (1021), a diffractive exit pupil expansion structure (1300) configured to diffract the set of in-coupled beams (1021) to form at least three sets of guided beams (1030), and a diffractive retardation and out-coupling structure (1400) configured to receive from the exit pupil expansion structure (1300) a diffracted set of beams (1035) and comprising an out-coupling grating (1420). The retardation and out-coupling structure (1400) is configured to diffract the diffracted set of beams (1035) to form at least one returning set of beams (1040) guided towards the exit pupil expansion structure (1300).

There is provided a beam steering device including: a phase change material layer; a metal layer on the phase change material layer; the grid structure is arranged between the phase change material layer and the metal layer; and a power source connected to the metal layer and configured to supply a current to the metal layer, in which the grid structure is configured to output light traveling in the phase change material layer.

To provide a favorable microstructured fiber optic oscillator and waveguide for a fiber scanner.SOLUTION: Described are optical fibers and scanning fiber displays comprising the optical fibers. The disclosed optical fibers include a plurality of mass adjustment regions, such as gas-filled regions, positioned between a central waveguiding element and an outer periphery for reducing the mass of the optical fiber compared to an optical fiber lacking the plurality of mass adjustment regions.SELECTED DRAWING: None

An intraoral scanner comprises a housing, a light source for generating light, an optics system for focusing the light, a detector for detecting returning light reflected off an intraoral object, and a focus shifting mechanism configured to shift a focal plane of the optics system. The optics system is configured such that, after having passed through the optics system, an outermost chief ray of the light with respect to an optical axis of the optics system is divergent to the optical axis and an outermost marginal ray of the light with respect to the optical axis is parallel or divergent to the optical axis.

The invention provides an optical scanning device. The optical scanning device comprises a substrate, an actuating piece, a connecting piece and a waveguide. The substrate comprises two setting parts and a connecting part. The setting part comprises two free ends and two fixed ends, and one of the two free ends is opposite to one of the two fixed ends. The connecting part is connected with the two fixing ends of the two setting parts. The two actuating members are arranged in parallel on the two setting parts respectively. The connecting piece is connected with the two setting parts. The waveguide is arranged between the two actuating pieces and penetrates through the connecting piece. The two actuating members actuate simultaneously in the same phase or different phases along a dimension, and further drive the waveguide to vibrate along two dimensions to generate a scanning pattern.

An optical device can include a liquid crystal layer including a first plurality of liquid crystal molecules arranged in a first pattern and a second plurality of liquid crystal molecules arranged in a second pattern. The first and the second patterns may be separated from each other by a suitable distance, e.g., about 20 nm to about 100 nm, along a longitudinal or a transverse axis of the liquid crystal layer. The first and the second pluralities of liquid crystal molecules can be configured as first and second grating structures that can redirect light of visible or infrared wavelengths. In some examples, the optical device includes electrode layers arranged on either side of the liquid crystal layer to control an alignment of the liquid crystal molecules. Methods of fabricating such devices are also described.

An optical device includes a liquid crystal layer having a first plurality of liquid crystal molecules arranged in a first pattern and a second plurality of liquid crystal molecules arranged in a second pattern. The first and the second pattern are separated from each other by a distance of about 20 nm and about 100 nm along a longitudinal or a transverse axis of the liquid crystal layer. The first and the second plurality of liquid crystal molecules are configured as first and second grating structures that can redirect light of visible or infrared wavelengths.

A metrology system (400) includes a multi-source radiation system. The multi-source radiation system includes a waveguide device (502) and the multi-source radiation system is configured to generate one or more beams of radiation. The metrology system (400) further includes a coherence adjuster (500) including a multimode waveguide device (504). The multimode waveguide device (504) includes an input configured to receive the one or more beams of radiation from the multi-source radiation system (514) and an output (518) configured to output a coherence adjusted beam of radiation for irradiating a target (418). The metrology system (400) further includes an actuator (506) coupled to the waveguide device (502) and configured to actuate the waveguide device (502) so as to change an impingement characteristic of the one or more beams of radiation at the input of the multimode waveguide device (504).

Described are optical fibers and scanning fiber displays comprising optical fibers. The disclosed optical fibers include a plurality of mass adjustment regions, such as gas-filled regions, positioned between a central waveguiding element and an outer periphery for reducing a mass of the optical fiber as compared to an optical fiber lacking the plurality of mass adjustment regions.

The application discloses a waveguide lens type light beam scanning and control method, which is realized based on a waveguide lens type light beam scanning and control device; the device comprises an input waveguide, a multimode waveguide and a plurality of strip electrodes arranged around the multimode waveguide; the input waveguide and the multimode waveguide are arranged along a direction x in sequence, the input waveguide is connected with an input end of the multimode waveguide, and an output end of the multimode waveguide is in contact with air; when the multimode waveguide is a two-dimensional multimode waveguide, the electrodes are arranged around the multimode waveguide, arranged in cascade along the direction x, and arranged in interval along a direction y perpendicular to the direction x; when the multimode waveguide is a three-dimensional multimode waveguide, the electrodes are further arranged in interval along a direction z perpendicular to the directions x and y; when the position of an input light source is unchanged, the continuous adjustment of the output position, angle and spot size of the light beam is realized by changing the position of the electrodes relative to the light source and the heating power of the electrodes. The application can flexibly and continuously regulate and control the output position, angle and output spot size of the light beam.

To provide a favorable microstructured fiber optic oscillator and waveguide for a fiber scanner.SOLUTION: Described are optical fibers and scanning fiber displays comprising the optical fibers. The disclosed optical fibers include a plurality of mass adjustment regions, such as gas-filled regions, positioned between a central waveguiding element and an outer periphery for reducing the mass of the optical fiber compared to an optical fiber lacking the plurality of mass adjustment regions.SELECTED DRAWING: None

The present invention uses tunable or broadband integrated OPO with active or passive beam steering devices for high-speed ranging on a compact, low-cost platform. Examples of beam steering devices include grating couplers, optical phased arrays, arrayed waveguide delay lines, nanophotonic antennas, metasurfaces, etc. The beam steering device can be inside or outside of the OPO structure. Under broadband operation, the angular information is encoded in the spectral domain and vice versa, and the detector may have multiple spectral filters corresponding to different angles or a single tunable filter. The tunable filter can be electro-optic (EO) based or piezoelectric (PZT)-based. This invention can be realized across multiple material platforms with application specific parameters to optimize performance, such as bandwidth, tuning range, tuning speed, spatial / temporal resolution, polarization, field of view (FOV), etc. The scanning can be done in 1D and 2D. Multiple OPOs can be fabricated on the same chip along with multiple beam steering devices, to extend the wavelength tuning range and subsequent FOV in 1D and 2D scanning.

There is provided a cantilevered waveguide (1,101,301). The cantilevered waveguide having a flexible substrate (2,102,302) upon which a plurality of waveguide segments (6,106,306) are provided. The flexible waveguide also having one or more flexion elements (7,107,307). The flexion elements (7,107,307) having different material properties to the flexible substrate (2,102,302) so as to introduce a strain imbalance between the flexion element and flexible substrate when subjected to a stimulus such as heat or magnetic field. The strain imbalance inducing a flex in the flexible substrate.

One embodiment is directed to a compact system for scanning electromagnetic imaging radiation, comprising a first waveguide and a second waveguide, each of which is operatively coupled to at least one electromagnetic radiation source and configured such that output from the first and second waveguides is luminance modulated and scanned along one or more axes to form at least a portion of an image.

To provide liquid crystal diffractive devices with optimal nano-scale pattern and methods for manufacturing the liquid crystal diffractive devices.SOLUTION: The present disclosure relates to an optical device including virtual reality, augmented reality imaging and a visualization system. The optical device includes a liquid crystal layer having a first plurality of liquid crystal molecules arranged in a first pattern and a second plurality of liquid crystal molecules arranged in a second pattern. The first pattern and the second pattern are separated from each other by a distance of about 20 nm to about 100 nm along a longitudinal or a transverse axis of the liquid crystal layer. The first plurality of liquid crystal molecules and the second plurality of liquid crystal molecules are configured as a first grating structure and a second grating structure that can redirect light of visible or infrared wavelengths.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 11A

An optical device includes a liquid crystal layer having a first plurality of liquid crystal molecules arranged in a first pattern and a second plurality of liquid crystal molecules arranged in a second pattern. The first and the second pattern are separated from each other by a distance of about 20 nm to about 100 nm along a longitudinal or a transverse axis of the liquid crystal layer. The first and the second plurality of liquid crystal molecules are configured as first and second grating structures that can redirect light of visible or infrared wavelengths.

The invention relates to a method for displaying virtual content to a user, the method comprising: providing one or more light patterns associated with one or more frames of image data in a time-sequential manner; reflecting the one or more light patterns associated with the one or more frames of image data via a transmissive beamsplitter to an exit pupil, the transmissive beamsplitter having a plurality of reflectors to variably direct light toward the exit pupil.

Beam scanners and display devices are based on a photonic integrated circuit that couples light to a pair of opposing reflectors. One reflector is tiltable and has an opening through which light is coupled, and the other reflector is configured to focus the light, e.g., a concave reflector. A polarization folding configuration is used to propagate the focused light through the opening in the first reflector, collimated by the second reflector, scanned by the first reflector, and through the second reflector to a pupil replication light guide that provides a plurality of laterally offset parallel portions of the scanned beam.

Described herein is an optical device that is arranged to emit electromagnetic radiation and a method of forming an optical device. In one embodiment, the optical device comprises an optical fibre that is arranged to transmit electromagnetic radiation between a source of electromagnetic radiation and an area of interest of a sample material. The optical device also comprises an optical element coupled to an end portion of the optical fibre. The optical element comprises a graphene lens that is arranged to focus the electromagnetic radiation transmitted by the optical fibre to a focal region within the area of interest of the sample material.

Provided is a beam steering device including a phase change material layer, a metal layer on the phase change material layer, a grid structure between the phase change material layer and the metal layer, and a power source connected to the metal layer and configured to supply a current to the metal layer, wherein the grid structure is configured to output light traveling in the phase change material layer.

To provide a favorable projector integrated with a scanning mirror.SOLUTION: A waveguide display system may include an eyepiece waveguide that can have a first surface and a second surface, the waveguide including an incoupling diffractive optical element (DOE) and an outcoupling DOE. The waveguide display system may include a light source and a scanning mirror, and may include reflective and collimating optical elements. The incoupling DOE can be configured to selectively propagate incident light beams to the outcoupling DOE in the waveguide through total internal reflection (TIR).SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 14

The present application relates to the technical field of optical scanning, and specifically discloses a light beam scanning system. The system comprises a beam splitting apparatus, an optical waveguide array, a light beam combining member, a light beam adjusting apparatus and a phase adjusting apparatus. The beam splitting apparatus receives a laser light beam, and divides the laser light beam into a plurality of sub-beams and then emits the sub-beams; the optical waveguide array is used to receive the plurality of sub-beams and transmit the plurality of sub-beams to a predetermined waveguide emergent end; the light beam combining member is connected to the optical waveguide array, each sub-beam emitted by the waveguide emergent end is subjected to diffraction and superposition in the light beam combining member, and the combined beam is focused on a predetermined light beam emergent surface; the light beam adjusting apparatus is used to expand and collimate the light beam emitted from the light beam emergent surface to form a scanning light beam; the phase adjusting apparatus is used to adjust the relative phase distribution of the waveguide wavelets in the optical waveguide array, so as to adjust the focus position of the combined light beam on the light beam emergent surface, and carry out light beam scanning in a first direction. Thus, the problem of large coupling interference of the phase control waveguide array is solved.

To provide virtual and augmented reality systems and methods.SOLUTION: The present invention discloses a configuration for presenting virtual reality and augmented reality experiences to users. The system may comprise: an image-generating source to provide one or more frames of image data in a time-sequential manner; a light modulator configured to transmit light associated with the one or more frames of image data; a substrate to direct image information to a user's eye, the substrate housing a plurality of reflectors; a first reflector of the plurality of reflectors to reflect light associated with a first frame of image data at a first angle to the user's eye; and a second reflector of the plurality of reflectors to reflect light associated with a second frame of image data at a second angle to the user's eye.SELECTED DRAWING: None

To provide favorable methods and systems for multi-element linkage for a fiber scanning display.SOLUTION: A multi-element fiber scanner for scanning electromagnetic imaging radiation includes a base having a base plane and a longitudinal axis orthogonal to the base plane, and a first fiber link passing through the base in a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis. The first fiber link is operatively coupled to at least one electromagnetic radiation source. The multi-element fiber scanner also includes a plurality of additional links joined to and extending from the base, and a retention collar disposed at a predetermined distance along the longitudinal axis from the base. The first fiber link and the plurality of additional links are joined to the retention collar.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

The present application relates to the field of optical scanning technology, and more particularly to a beam scanning system. The system includes a beam splitter, an optical waveguide array, a beam synthesizing unit, a beam adjustment device, and a phase adjustment device. The beam splitter receives a laser beam, splits the laser beam into several sub-beams, and outputs the split beam. The optical waveguide array is used to receive several sub-beams and transmit the several sub-beams to a pre-installed waveguide output end. The beam synthesizing unit is connected to the optical waveguide array, and each sub-beam output from the waveguide output end is diffracted and superimposed in the beam synthesizing unit to be combined and focused on a pre-installed beam output surface. The beam adjustment device is used to expand and collimate the beam output from the beam output surface to form a scanning beam. The phase adjustment device is used to adjust the relative phase distribution between each sub-beam waveguide in the optical waveguide array, thereby adjusting the focal position of the combined beam on the beam output surface, and performing beam scanning in a first direction. This solves the problem of large coupling interference in the waveguide-type phased array. [Representative diagram] Figure 2

To provide virtual and augmented reality systems and methods.SOLUTION: The present invention discloses a configuration for presenting virtual reality and augmented reality experiences to users. The system may comprise: an image-generating source to provide one or more frames of image data in a time-sequential manner; a light modulator configured to transmit light associated with the one or more frames of image data; a substrate to direct image information to a user's eye, the substrate housing a plurality of reflectors; a first reflector of the plurality of reflectors to reflect light associated with a first frame of image data at a first angle to the user's eye; and a second reflector of the plurality of reflectors to reflect light associated with a second frame of image data at a second angle to the user's eye.SELECTED DRAWING: None

To protect eyes of audience members from cinema projectors emitting intense light.SOLUTION: A projector controller includes an object detector and control electronics and protects audience members from intense light imposing an exclusion zone in front of a projector. The object detector optically senses a presence of an object in a detection region beneath the exclusion zone and above the audience members. The control electronics control the projector when the object detector indicates the presence of the object in the detection region. A method for protecting audience members from intense light imposing the exclusion zone in front of an output of a projector includes the steps of: (i) optically sensing the presence of the object in the detection region between the exclusion zone and the audience members, and (ii) controlling the projector when the presence of the object is sensed in the detection region.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 4

An intraoral scanner comprises a housing, a light source for generating light, an optics system for focusing the light, a detector for detecting returning light reflected off an intraoral object, and a focus shifting mechanism configured to shift a focal plane of the optics system. The optics system is configured such that, after having passed through the optics system, an outermost chief ray of the light with respect to an optical axis of the optics system is divergent to the optical axis and an outermost marginal ray of the light with respect to the optical axis is parallel or divergent to the optical axis.

This invention provides a reading device and an image forming apparatus capable of suppressing light passing through apertures from entering the portion surrounding a lens in an optical component, excluding the lens itself. The reading device comprises: a light-shielding member of thickness (T) in which a plurality of through-holes of diameter (D) are formed at intervals (P), through which light reflected from an original document passes; an optical component having surfaces separated from and opposite the light-shielding member, each having a lens formed at a position opposite to the aperture, a light-shielding film formed on the surface at a position other than the lens surface of the lens, the distance (L) of the lens from the light-shielding member in the optical axis direction being 0 < L ≤ T(P / D-1); and a substrate having elements for receiving light passing through the optical component.