Five-Element Optical Lens for Waveguide Displays
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Solution Overview
Problem
Optical lenses for waveguide displays face challenges in achieving good optical quality and thermal stability while maintaining a compact size and weight.
Innovation Solution
The design of an optical lens comprising five sequentially arranged lens elements with specific refracting powers and materials, including plastic aspheric and glass spherical elements, to form a beam waist with a minimum cross-sectional area, ensuring high imaging quality and thermal stability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If the optical lens uses multiple lens elements to achieve good imaging quality, then the imaging quality is improved, but the total lens length increases
Solution Approach 1:
The optical lens is divided into five separate lens elements (first through fifth lens elements) with different refracting powers and material compositions. This segmentation allows each element to contribute specifically to correcting optical aberrations and forming the beam waist, achieving high imaging quality while maintaining a compact overall structure through optimized individual element designs.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs systematic variation of key parameters including refracting power (positive for first, third, fourth, fifth elements; negative for second element), Abbe number (ranging from 17.9 to 55.7), and material composition (plastic vs. glass). These parameter changes enable precise control over light propagation and aberration correction, achieving compact beam waist formation with minimal cross-sectional area while maintaining short total lens length.
2Measurement precision
If the optical lens uses multiple lens elements to achieve good imaging quality, then the imaging quality is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The optical system is segmented into five functionally distinct lens elements, each with specific refracting power and material properties. This segmentation enables modular design where each element can be optimized independently for its specific function (converging, diverging, or beam shaping), simplifying the overall design process while achieving complex imaging performance through coordinated element arrangement.
Solution Approach 2:
Systematic parameter variation across the five lens elements (refracting power, Abbe number, material type) provides multiple degrees of freedom for optimizing optical performance. This parameter diversity allows the complex imaging function to be achieved through well-defined, manufacturable elements with standard optical properties, rather than requiring exotic or overly complex single-element designs.
3Stability of the object's composition
If the optical lens uses specific materials to achieve thermal stability, then the thermal stability is improved, but the manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent selects materials with specific Abbe numbers (ranging from 17.9 to 55.7) and refracting powers that inherently provide thermal stability. By choosing materials whose optical properties are less sensitive to temperature variations (such as certain glass types with higher Abbe numbers), the design achieves thermal stability while maintaining reasonable manufacturing tolerances for the lens elements.
Solution Approach 2:
The optical lens employs a composite structure combining different materials (plastic and glass) with complementary properties. This composite approach allows the system to achieve thermal stability through the glass elements while the plastic elements can be manufactured with more relaxed tolerances, balancing thermal performance with manufacturing feasibility.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The optical lens achieves good imaging quality with a short total lens length and high resolution, while maintaining thermal stability across varying temperatures, suitable for waveguide displays.
Implementation Method 1
Refracting powers of the first lens element to the fourth lens element sequentially are positive, negative, positive, and positive, and the fifth lens element has refracting power
Data Source
AI summary
An optical lens is provided. The optical lens includes a first lens element to a fifth lens element sequentially arranged from a light incident side to a light exit side. An image generation device is disposed at the light incident side, and the optical lens is configured to receive an image beam provided by the image generation device. The image beam forms a stop at the light exit side. The stop has a minimum cross-sectional area of beam shrinkage of the image beam. The optical lens provided by the invention exhibits good optical quality and thermal stability.