Diffraction optical waveguide and display device

Abstract

The invention provides a novel diffraction optical waveguide and a display device, a supporting structure is arranged between a waveguide sheet and a protection sheet, the supporting structure comprises a first supporting structure and a second supporting structure, the first supporting structure and the second supporting structure comprise a plurality of supporting units, and the supporting units abut against each other. The orthographic projections of the plurality of supporting units of the first supporting structure and the second supporting structure on the protection sheet or the waveguide sheet coincide with each other, so that the contact mode of the protection sheet when the protection sheet is pressed can be effectively changed, large-area contact between the waveguide sheet and the protection sheet is avoided, deformation recovery can be facilitated, and the service life of the waveguide sheet is prolonged. The long-time adhesion of the protection sheet and the waveguide sheet is avoided, so that the Newton ring phenomenon is reduced, and the display effect of the existing lens is improved; meanwhile, the abutting heights of the supporting units at different positions are different, and the situation that after the supporting unit with the high height is pressed and damaged, the supporting unit with the high height does not bear other heights, and Newton rings are generated is avoided.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of augmented reality technology, and in particular to a diffraction optical waveguide and a display device. Background Art

[0002] With the development of key technologies of augmented reality, especially the continuous rise of the concept of the metaverse in the past two years, all walks of life have higher and higher requirements for smart glasses. In order to improve the color display effect of smart glasses and take into account the requirements of lightness and thinness, for diffraction light waveguide components, the thickness is usually reduced or a thinner protective sheet material is selected to replace it. Due to the thinness and flexibility of this type of protective sheet itself, it is difficult to achieve compression. While achieving lightweight, it also brings new problems to the waveguide components, such as the overall strength of the waveguide components is poor, it is easy to bend and deform, and the resistance to falling is poor. Especially during use, the waveguide components are deformed by pressure or collision, which makes them contact with the waveguide sheet and produce Newton rings, which in turn affects the display effect of the diffraction light waveguide. For such problems, how to avoid the occurrence of this phenomenon and prevent the protective sheet from deforming is an urgent problem that needs to be solved.

[0003] The present invention intends to solve the above technical problems and provide a new diffraction optical waveguide and display device to reduce the generation of Newton rings in the waveguide. Summary of the invention

[0004] The embodiments of the present invention provide a diffraction optical waveguide and a display device to solve the problems existing in the prior art.

[0005] The present invention seeks to protect a diffraction optical waveguide, comprising at least one layer of waveguide sheet and at least one layer of protection sheet, wherein the waveguide sheet and the protection sheet are stacked, and a grating structure is arranged on a surface of the waveguide sheet facing the protection sheet, wherein the grating structure comprises an in-coupling grating and an out-coupling grating, wherein a grating structure area is formed by areas where the in-coupling grating and the out-coupling grating are located and connected areas, a first supporting structure is arranged on a surface of the waveguide sheet facing the protection sheet, and a second supporting structure is arranged on a surface of the protection sheet facing the waveguide sheet, wherein the first supporting structure surrounds the grating structure area; and the second supporting structure on the surface of the waveguide sheet abuts against the second supporting structure on the surface of the protection sheet.

[0006] Further, the orthographic projections of the first supporting structure and the second supporting structure on the protection sheet or the waveguide sheet overlap with each other.

[0007] Furthermore, the first supporting structure on the surface of the waveguide sheet and the second supporting structure on the surface of the protection sheet have different heights.

[0008] Furthermore, the support structure on the surface of the waveguide sheet and the support structure on the surface of the protection sheet have different widths.

[0009] Furthermore, the cross section of the support structure is ring-shaped and / or dot-shaped.

[0010] In practice, the first annular support structure is composed of an arc or a linear structure; and the second annular support structure is composed of an arc or a linear structure.

[0011] In practice, the first point-shaped support structure is composed of a plurality of arcs or linear structures; and the second point-shaped support structure is composed of a plurality of arcs or linear structures.

[0012] Pragmatically, the first supporting structure and the second supporting structure include a plurality of supporting units.

[0013] Preferably, the support units of the first support structure and the second support structure have different heights.

[0014] The waveguide sheet may be a resin sheet or a glass sheet; the protection sheet may be a resin sheet or a glass sheet.

[0015] Furthermore, the present application requests protection for a diffraction optical waveguide, comprising at least two layers of waveguide plates and at least one layer of protective plate, a grating structure being arranged on the surface of each layer of waveguide plates facing the protective plate, the first supporting structure being arranged outside the grating structure region on each layer of waveguide plates, and the second supporting structure being arranged on the surface of the middle waveguide plate facing the other waveguide plate, the first supporting structure and the second supporting structure comprising a plurality of supporting units, the plurality of supporting units of the first supporting structure being abutted against the plurality of supporting units of the second supporting structure, and the plurality of supporting units of the first supporting structure units surrounding the grating structure region.

[0016] At the same time, the present application seeks protection for a display device comprising any of the diffractive optical waveguides described above.

[0017] It can be known that the display device is AR glasses or HUD.

[0018] The present application provides a new diffraction optical waveguide and display device, by arranging a support structure between a waveguide sheet and a protective sheet, the support structure includes a first support structure and a second support structure, the first support structure and the second support structure include a plurality of support units, each support unit is arranged in contact with each other, and the orthographic projections of the plurality of support units of the first support structure and the second support structure on the protective sheet or the waveguide sheet overlap with each other, which can effectively change the contact mode of the protective sheet when under pressure, avoid large-area contact between the waveguide sheet and the protective sheet, make it more conducive to restoring deformation, avoid "long-term adhesion" between the protective sheet and the waveguide sheet, thereby reducing the generation of Newton ring phenomenon, and improving the existing lens The display effect in the diffraction optical waveguide is improved, and an unexpected technical effect is achieved; at the same time, considering the operability of the process and the frequency of pressure on the diffraction optical waveguide, the support units are arranged to abut against each other, and the support structure at the same position is divided into two parts, and the abutment heights of the support units at different positions are different, thereby reducing the difficulty of the process and prolonging the service life of the diffraction optical waveguide, preventing the high-height support unit from being damaged by pressure and having no other height to bear, resulting in Newton rings; and by changing the width of the upper and lower support units, the contact area of ​​the support unit at different positions is changed, thereby improving the support capacity and avoiding the irreversible damage that may exist in the prior art after multiple pressures at a high height. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0019] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention, the following briefly introduces the drawings required for use in the description of the embodiments. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative work.

[0020] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of a diffractive optical waveguide according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention;

[0021] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of a diffractive optical waveguide according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention;

[0022] Figure 3 A schematic diagram of a diffractive optical waveguide according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention;

[0023] Figure 4 A schematic diagram of a diffractive optical waveguide according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention;

[0024] Figure 5 A schematic diagram of a diffractive optical waveguide according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention;

[0025] Figure 6 A schematic diagram of a diffractive optical waveguide according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention;

[0026] Figure 7 A schematic diagram of a diffractive optical waveguide according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention;

[0027] Figure 8 A schematic diagram of a diffractive optical waveguide according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention;

[0028] Fig. 9 A schematic diagram of a diffractive optical waveguide according to Embodiment 7 of the present invention;

[0029] Figure ID:

[0030] 10: protective plate; 20: connecting piece; 30: waveguide plate; 40: out-coupling grating; 50: in-coupling grating; 200: second supporting structure; 300: third supporting structure DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0031] In order to enable those skilled in the art to better understand the scheme of the present invention, the technical scheme in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below in conjunction with the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work should fall within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0032] The present invention claims a diffractive optical waveguide, such as Figure 1 , 2 As shown, the waveguide sheet 30 comprises at least one layer and the protective sheet 10 comprises at least one layer. The waveguide sheet 30 and the protective sheet 10 are stacked. The waveguide sheet 30 and the protective sheet 10 are connected by a connecting member 20. A grating structure is arranged on a surface of the waveguide sheet 30 facing the protective sheet 10. The grating structure comprises an in-coupling grating 50 and an out-coupling grating 40. The area connected by the in-coupling grating 50 and the out-coupling grating 40 forms a grating structure area (such as Figure 2 A first support structure 300 is arranged on the surface of the waveguide sheet 30 facing the protective sheet 10, and a second support structure 200 is arranged on the surface of the protective sheet 10 facing the waveguide sheet 30. The first support structure 300 surrounds the grating structure area; the second support structure 300 on the surface of the waveguide sheet 30 abuts against the second support structure 200 on the surface of the protective sheet 10, that is, the first support structure 300 and the second support structure 200 corresponding to each other are formed, so that the positive projections of the support structures coincide, as shown in FIG. Figure 1 As shown by the red dotted line in , the first supporting structure and the second supporting structure are aligned and abutted, and their orthographic projections coincide with each other.

[0033] It can be known that the waveguide sheet can be a resin sheet or a glass sheet; the protection sheet can be a resin sheet or a glass sheet.

[0034] The present application sets the support structure in a mutually abutting manner, which can effectively prevent the protection sheet from contacting the grating structure and other areas when the protection sheet is deformed under pressure, thereby preventing the generation of Newton rings and reducing the Newton ring phenomenon; further, by respectively setting the support structure on the opposite surfaces of the waveguide sheet and the protection sheet, it can effectively reduce the difficulty of making a single higher support structure in the prior art, and by using the two-section abutment method, the process difficulty is reduced, and the higher support structure can be prevented from deformation or damage after multiple compressions, such as breaking, bending, etc., thereby increasing the service life of the diffraction optical waveguide.

[0035] Furthermore, for the shape of the supporting structure, such as Figure 1 Only the cross-sectional structure of the first supporting structure and the second supporting structure is shown to be rectangular. For this application, it can be implemented by combining Figure 2 and Figure 3 The structure shown can be limited to the first supporting structure and the second supporting structure being in a ring shape or a point shape, or a combination thereof. Here, the present application does not make any limitation, as long as the orthographic projections of the upper and lower supporting structures coincide.

[0036] further, Figure 2 Only one embodiment in which the first support structure 300 and the second support structure 200 are annular is shown. It can be understood that "annular" can be understood as being composed of an arc or a straight line structure to support the protective sheet to prevent it from deforming, or being composed of a plurality of arc or straight line closed ring structures; for the cross section of the support structure 200, the cross section of the support structure is rectangular, such as Figure 1 As shown, of course, it can also be other shapes, such as trapezoid, inverted trapezoid, arc, etc. This application does not make any limitation on this, and the changes made within the scope of this application are within the concept of this application.

[0037] Furthermore, in Example 2, Figure 3 An embodiment is shown in which the support structure 200 is dotted in a top view. The dotted first and second support structures are composed of a plurality of arc or linear structure interruptions. Of course, their cross-sections may be more than circular. Polygonal and elliptical shapes are all examples of "dot-shaped" structures. The first support structure 300 and the second support structure 200 are scattered on the surface of one side of the waveguide plate and the protective plate, and each support structure may have different parameters such as shape, size, height, position, etc., forming a "chaotic" and disordered support structure. The number, position, etc. of the support structures are appropriately selected based on the situation in which the diffraction optical waveguide produces the Newton ring phenomenon. For the support structure with a "dot-shaped" cross-section, a variety of structures such as cylinder, polygon, trapezoid, etc. can be selected.

[0038] In the specific support structure design, you can choose Figure 2The "ring-shaped" arc structure shown or Figure 3 A "point-shaped" support structure, or a combination of the two, including a combination on a waveguide plate or a combination on a protective plate, or a combination of a waveguide plate and a protective plate, etc., all fall within the scope of protection requested by this application and are not limited here.

[0039] Further, in Example 3, combined with Figure 4 , the first support structure 300 and the second support structure 200 include a plurality of support units, the support units in the same position area abut against each other, and the orthographic projections overlap each other, and different positions include different numbers of support units; of course, in combination with the above content, Figure 4 Only an example of a rectangular cross section is shown. It is known that the support units at different positions or the upper and lower support units at the same position can be selected as follows: Figure 2 The "ring-shaped" arc structure shown or Figure 3 The "point-shaped" support structure can be freely combined and belongs to the content of this application.

[0040] Further integration Figure 4 The first support structure 300 and the second support structure 200 include a plurality of support units, and the heights of the support units at different positions may be different. For example, a support unit with a lower height on the waveguide sheet abuts against a support unit with a higher height on the protective sheet, and their orthographic projections overlap with each other, and they abut against each other in a nested manner, which is beneficial to improving the ability of the protective sheet to resist deformation; or, for example, a support unit with a higher height on the waveguide sheet abuts against a support unit with a lower height on the protective sheet, as long as the two can abut and cooperate with each other, of course, such a design is also applicable to ring-shaped and point-shaped support structures.

[0041] In practice, as in the fourth embodiment, the first support structure 300 and the second support structure 200 include a plurality of support units, and the heights of the support units at different positions may be different. Figure 5 , the structures of the various support units are different, and the distance between the first support structure 300 and the second support structure 200 abutting against each other increases from the edge close to the connecting member 20 to the area close to the grating structure, that is, the heights of the two structures increase or decrease; when using Figure 5 In this way, when the protective sheet 10 or the waveguide sheet 30 is under pressure, the protective sheet and the edge portion of the waveguide sheet are preferentially contacted, thereby preventing the structural area in the middle of the waveguide from contacting, thereby better protecting the grating structure to a certain extent and preventing it from being damaged by compression.

[0042] Further, optionally, in the fifth embodiment, the heights and widths of the support units at different positions in different regions may be different or the same, such as Figure 5 The several support units shown have the same width, such as Figure 6As shown, the widths of the support units in different areas are different, such as the width of the first support structure is greater than that of the second support structure, or the width of the second support structure is greater than that of the first support structure; the purpose of such design is that the total height of the support structure is usually limited to between 1 μm and 0.2 mm, and the upper and lower support units are limited to different widths to make the structures aligned and abutted as much as possible during the bonding process of the protective sheet and the waveguide sheet, so that the deformation resistance is stronger and different positions can quickly recover the deformation; optionally, in some embodiments, such as Figure 7 As shown, the widths of the supporting units of the first supporting structure 300 and the second supporting structure 200 increase sequentially in a direction away from the grating structure toward the connecting member 20 , so as to improve the deformation resistance of the edge of the protection sheet.

[0043] Further, combined with Figure 1 , Figure 4-7 It can be known that the height of the upper and lower supporting units is greater than the height of the grating structure, which can be limited to 1 μm to 0.2 mm, so that the supporting structure can help the protective sheet 10 to quickly restore its deformation, while preventing the compressive deformation of the protective sheet from damaging the grating structure area, thereby affecting the performance of the diffraction optical waveguide.

[0044] Alternatively, as in Example 6, Figure 8 As shown, a second support structure 200 is provided on the surface of the side of the protection sheet 10 facing the waveguide sheet 30, and the second support structure 200 abuts against the first support structure 300 surrounding the grating structure area. In addition to the abutting support structures, a second support structure 200 is also provided at the position of the positive projection of the grating structure area on the protection sheet, and the second support structure 200 at least partially covers the positive projection, so that the protection sheet can contact the grating structure through the second support structure when under pressure, and the protection sheet can restore its deformation through the structure, thereby preventing the protection sheet from deformation and preventing the Newton ring phenomenon.

[0045] Further, in embodiment seven, as Fig. 9As shown, the present application provides a diffraction optical waveguide, comprising at least two layers of waveguide sheets 30 and at least one layer of protection sheet 10, the waveguide sheets 30 and the protection sheet 10 are stacked, and the waveguide sheets 30 and the protection sheet 10 are connected by a connecting member 20, a grating structure is arranged on a surface of each layer of the waveguide sheet 30 facing the protection sheet 10, the grating structure comprises an in-coupling grating 50 and an out-coupling grating 40, and a grating structure area is formed by an area connected by the in-coupling grating 50 and the out-coupling grating 40, a first supporting structure 300 is arranged on a surface of the waveguide sheet 30 facing the protection sheet 10, and a first supporting structure 300 is arranged on a surface of the protection sheet 10 facing the waveguide sheet 30. The side surface is provided with a second support structure 200, and the first support structure 300 surrounds the grating structure area; the second support structure 300 on the surface of the waveguide plate 30 abuts against the second support structure 200 on the surface of the protective plate 10, the first support structure 300 and the second support structure 200 include a number of support units, the first support structure 300 surrounds the grating structure area, and a number of support units of the first support structure 300 and the second support structure 200 abut against each other, and the positive projections of the support units overlap with each other; and combined with the above-mentioned embodiments, it can be defined that the support structure is ring-shaped or point-shaped or a combination thereof. The support structure adopts the structure of any of the above-mentioned embodiments, and this application does not make any limitation on this, and it is within the scope of protection requested by this application without departing from the essence of this application.

[0046] It should be noted that the definition of not affecting the optical path in the waveguide as defined in this application means not bringing adverse effects to the original coupling, transmission, and coupling-out optical paths in the waveguide, thereby producing results worse than the original performance. However, support structures that can bring favorable effects also fall within the scope of protection of this application.

[0047] In some embodiments of the present application, the grating structure also includes a turning grating, and the grating structure area at this time is defined as the area of ​​the light path connected to the locations of the coupling-in grating, the turning grating, and the coupling-out grating. Of course, in other embodiments, the grating structure may also include other functional gratings, such as a recycling grating, etc., and the grating structure area at this time is defined as the area where the grating structure is located and the area of ​​the light path connected to the locations of the gratings in the grating structure.

[0048] At the same time, the present application claims protection for a display device comprising any of the aforementioned diffractive optical waveguides.

[0049] It can be known that the display device is AR glasses or HUD.

[0050] The present application provides a new diffraction optical waveguide and display device. A support structure is arranged between a waveguide sheet and a protective sheet. The support structure includes a first support structure and a second support structure. The first support structure and the second support structure include a plurality of support units. The support units are arranged in abutment with each other, and the orthographic projections of the support units overlap with each other, so as to prevent the protective sheet from deforming when under pressure and enable it to quickly restore the deformation. The support structure can prevent the protective sheet from "long-term adhesion" to the grating structure area or the non-structure area, thereby reducing the occurrence of Newton ring phenomenon, improving the display effect in the existing lens, and having unexpected technical effects. At the same time, considering the operability of the process and the problem of the frequency of pressure on the diffraction optical waveguide, the support units are arranged in abutment with each other, and the abutment heights of the support units at different positions are different, thereby reducing the difficulty of the process, and at the same time increasing the service life of the diffraction optical waveguide, and preventing the support units at higher heights from being damaged by pressure.

[0051] The above specific implementations do not constitute a limitation on the protection scope of the present invention. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications, combinations, sub-combinations and substitutions can be made according to design requirements and other factors. Any modification, equivalent substitution and improvement made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A diffractive optical waveguide, characterized in that: The invention comprises at least one layer of waveguide sheet and at least one layer of protection sheet, wherein the waveguide sheet and the protection sheet are stacked, a grating structure is arranged on a surface of the waveguide sheet facing the protection sheet, the grating structure comprises an in-coupling grating and an out-coupling grating, a grating structure area is formed by the area where the in-coupling grating and the out-coupling grating are located and the connected area, a first supporting structure is arranged on a surface of the waveguide sheet facing the protection sheet, a second supporting structure is arranged on a surface of the protection sheet facing the waveguide sheet, and the first supporting structure surrounds the grating structure area; The first supporting structure on the surface of the waveguide sheet and the second supporting structure on the surface of the protection sheet abut against each other.

2. The diffractive optical waveguide according to claim 1, characterized in that: The orthographic projections of the first supporting structure and the second supporting structure on the protection sheet or the waveguide sheet overlap with each other.

3. The diffractive optical waveguide according to claim 1, characterized in that: The first supporting structure on the surface of the waveguide plate and the second supporting structure on the surface of the protection plate have different heights, and / or the first supporting structure on the surface of the waveguide plate and the second supporting structure on the surface of the protection plate have different widths.

4. The diffractive optical waveguide according to claim 3, characterized in that: The cross sections of the first supporting structure and the second supporting structure are ring-shaped and / or dot-shaped.

5. The diffractive optical waveguide according to claim 4, characterized in that: The first annular support structure is composed of an arc or a linear structure; the second annular support structure is composed of an arc or a linear structure.

6. The diffractive optical waveguide according to claim 1, characterized in that: The point-shaped first supporting structure is composed of a plurality of arcs or linear structures intermittently; the point-shaped second supporting structure is composed of a plurality of arcs or linear structures intermittently.

7. The diffractive optical waveguide according to claim 1, characterized in that: The first supporting structure and the second supporting structure include a plurality of supporting units.

8. The diffractive optical waveguide according to claim 7, characterized in that: The support units of the first support structure and the second support structure have different heights.

9. The diffractive optical waveguide according to claim 1, characterized in that: The invention comprises at least two layers of waveguide plates and at least one layer of protection plate, a grating structure is arranged on the surface of each layer of waveguide plates facing the protection plate, the first supporting structure is arranged outside the grating structure area on each layer of waveguide plates, and the second supporting structure is arranged on the surface of the middle waveguide plate facing another waveguide plate, the first supporting structure and the second supporting structure comprise a plurality of supporting units, the plurality of supporting units of the first supporting structure and the plurality of supporting units of the second supporting structure are in contact with each other, and the plurality of supporting units of the first supporting structure unit surround the grating structure area.

10. A display device, characterized in that: The diffractive optical waveguide comprises the diffractive optical waveguide according to any one of claims 1 to 9.

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