Thin, multi-focal plane, augmented reality eyewear are disclosed. An example lens structure includes a two-layer waveguide including a first waveguide and a second waveguide. The two-layer waveguide produces a virtual object based on light from an image source. The two-layer waveguide causes the virtual object to appear at a first virtual object focal plane. The first waveguide propagates more of the light in a first wavelength range than in a second wavelength range. The second waveguide propagates more of the light in the second wavelength range than in the first wavelength range. The first wavelength range is associated with longer wavelengths than the second wavelength range. The lens structure further includes an optical lens to cause the virtual object to appear at a second virtual object focal plane associated with a shorter apparent distance from a user than the first virtual object focal plane.

A holographic display device includes a display panel for emitting a first image light and a diffraction component on an optical path of the first image light. The first image light includes first and second colors of light. The diffraction component diffracts the first color light at a first diffraction efficiency and diffracts the second color light at a second diffraction efficiency. The first color light and the second color light after diffraction are mixed together in a second image light for generating holographic images. By emitting the first color light and the second color light in the first image light at the same grayscale value, a ratio of intensities of the first color light and the second color light becomes inversely proportional to a ratio of the first diffraction efficiency and the second diffraction efficiency.

An eyewear apparatus is disclosed which comprises at least one light display engine (LDE) configured to generate at least one image on a display (disp1) of said light display engine, a waveguide (WG) configured for guiding light from the light display engine towards an eye of a user to make said image (Im1) visible to the user, wherein said display (disp1) is shifted (d) on one side with respect to an optical axis of said light display engine such that said image (Im1) is visible to the user on a corresponding side of a field of view (HFoV) of said eyewear apparatus.

A backlight unit for a display device includes: a light guide including a light incident surface; a substrate facing the light incident surface; a plurality of light sources on one surface of the substrate facing the light incident surface; and a first member disposed between the substrate and the light incident surface to space the light sources apart from the light guide. The first member includes: a support on one surface of the substrate that do not include the light source, the support having a first surface facing the light incident surface and a second surface facing the light sources; and a first layer disposed on the first surface and the second surface of the support to improve luminance uniformity across the light incident surface.

Diffraction gratings provide optical elements in head-mounted display systems to, e.g., incouple light into or out-couple light out of a waveguide. These diffraction gratings may be configured to have reduced polarization sensitivity. Such gratings may, for example, incouple or outcouple light of different polarizations with similar level of efficiency. The diffraction gratings and waveguides may include a transmissive layer and a metal layer. The diffraction grating may comprises a blazed grating.

Provided is a light guide plate for an image display device which uses lead-free glass, has excellent color reproducibility and a light weight, and may obtain a wide viewing angle. A light guide plate for an image display device, which guides image light inputted from an image display element and outputs the image light toward a user's pupil, is configured to be made of lead-free glass having a refractive index of 1.8 or more with respect to a wavelength of the image light, and to have internal transmittance of 0.6 or more with respect to a wavelength of 400 nm when a plate thickness is 10 mm.

The disclosed waveguide display device may include a waveguide and one or more projector assemblies configured to project image light into the waveguide, where each of the one or more projector assemblies includes a first monochromatic emitter array having a plurality of emitters of a first color disposed in a two-dimensional configuration and a second monochromatic emitter array having a plurality of emitters of a second color disposed in a two-dimensional configuration. The display device may also include at least one application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) configured to drive the first and second monochromatic emitter arrays to emit images of the first and second color along a common axis, with the first color being different from the second color. Various other devices, systems, and methods are also disclosed.

The head-mounted display includes: an image display unit that generates an image to be displayed; and a first light guide plate and a second light guide plate which duplicate image light from the image display unit. Each of the first light guide plate and the second light guide plate includes a set of parallel main surfaces confining the image light with internal reflection, the first light guide plate includes an incident plane that reflects the image light to an inner side, and two or more emission/reflection planes from which the image light is emitted to the second light guide plate, the second light guide plate includes an input part that couples the image light transmitted from the first light guide plate to the inner side, and an output part from which the image light is emitted to a user’s pupil.

An augmented reality device includes an eyeglass frame and a combiner mounted on the eyeglass frame. The combiner includes an inner surface and an outer surface disposed opposite the inner surface. The device further includes an active shutter lens mounted on the combiner and an image projector mounted on the eyeglass frame and configured to project display light to the combiner such that a first portion of the display light is emitted from the inner surface of the combiner and a second portion of the display light is emitted from the outer surface of the combiner. The device additionally includes a processor coupled to the image projector and the active shutter lens. The active shutter lens is configured to shield the display light emitted from the outer surface of the combiner. The combiner is configured to emit ambient light from the inner surface thereof.

Embodiments presented in this disclosure generally relate to an optical device having a grating coupler for redirection of optical signals. One embodiment includes a grating coupler. The grating coupler generally includes a waveguide layer, a thickness of a waveguide layer portion of the waveguide layer being tapered, the thickness defining a direction, and a grating layer disposed above the waveguide layer and perpendicular to the direction where at least a grating layer portion of the grating layer overlaps the waveguide layer portion of the waveguide layer along the direction. Some embodiments are directed to grating coupler implemented with material layers above and a reflector layer below a grating layer, facilitating redirection and confinement of light that improves coupling loss and bandwidth. The material layers and reflector layer above and below the grating layer may be implemented with or without the waveguide layer being tapered.