Varifocal optical system

Abstract

A focus tunable optical system includes a lens assembly. The lens assembly includes: focus tunable lenses (FTLs) coaxially disposed along an optical axis, each FTL contributing to an optical power of the lens assembly; and a controller configured to control the optical power of the lens assembly by applying to each FTL a respective control signal, thereby generating a periodic optical response of the respective FTL. The optical response of each FTL is substantially different from the optical response of any other FTL of the plurality of FTLs.

Claims

1. A focus tunable optical system, comprising: a lens assembly comprising a plurality of focus tunable lenses (FTLs) coaxially disposed along an optical axis, each of the FTLs contributing to an optical power of the lens assembly; and a controller configured to control the optical power of the lens assembly by respectively applying to each of the FTLs a respective control signal, thereby generating a periodic optical response of each of the respective FTLs, wherein the respective optical response of each of the FTLs is substantially different from the respective optical response of any other FTL of the plurality of FTLs, wherein the controller is configured to perform a Fourier analysis of a desired optical response and to generate for each or one or more of the FTLs the respective control signal in proportion to a sum of one or more Fourier components of the desired optical response.

2. The focus tunable optical system according to claim 1, wherein the optical response of a FTL, of the FTLs, comprises a natural frequency of the FTL.

3. The focus tunable optical system according to claim 1, wherein the optical response of a FTL, of the FTLs, comprises a frequency lower than a natural frequency of the FTL.

4. The focus tunable optical system according to claim 1, wherein for each or one or more of the FTLs, the optical response of each of the respective FTLs comprises one or more Fourier components of an optical response of the lens assembly.

5. The focus tunable optical system according to claim 1, wherein the optical response of one of the FTLs comprises a lowest Fourier component of an optical response of the lens assembly.

6. The focus tunable optical system according to claim 1, wherein for each or one or more of the FTLs, the optical response of each of the respective FTLs comprises only odd Fourier components or only even Fourier components of an optical response of the lens assembly.

7. The focus tunable optical system according to claim 1, wherein for each or one or more of the FTLs, the optical response of each the respective FTLs comprises less than 10 Fourier components of an optical response of the lens assembly.

8. The focus tunable optical system according to claim 7, wherein for each or one or more of the FTLs, the optical response of each the respective FTLs comprises less than 5 Fourier components of the optical response of the lens assembly.

9. The focus tunable optical system according to claim 1, wherein: the plurality of FTLs comprises a first FTL, a second FTL, and a third FTL, the optical response of the first FTL approximates a first sum of a number of Fourier components of a desired optical response of the lens assembly, the optical response of the second FTL approximates a second sum of a subset of the remainder of the Fourier components of the desired optical response of the lens assembly to compensate for a first residual of the first FTL, the optical response of the third FTL approximates a third sum of the remaining Fourier components of the desired optical response of the lens assembly to compensate for a second residual of the second FTL, and a sum of the respective optical response of each of the first FTL, the second FTL, and the third FTL approximates the desired optical response.

10. The focus tunable optical system according to claim 1, wherein an optical response of the lens assembly is a periodic staircase function or an approximation of a periodic staircase function.

11. A multifocal display device, comprising: the focus tunable optical system according to claim 1.

12. A method for controlling a focus tunable optical system, the method comprising: controlling an optical power of a lens assembly, which comprises a plurality of focus tunable lenses (FTLs) coaxially disposed along an optical axis of the lens assembly; and respectively applying to each of the FTLs a respective control signal, thereby generating a periodic optical response of each of the respective FTLs, wherein the optical response of each of the FTLs contributes to the optical power of the lens assembly and is substantially different from the optical response from any other FTL of the plurality of FTLs, the method further comprises performing a Fourier analysis of a desired optical response and to generating for each or one or more of the FTLs the respective control signal in proportion to a sum of one or more Fourier components of the desired optical response.

13. A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising a program code for controlling a focus tunable optical system according to the method of claim 12.

14. A focus tunable optical system, comprising: a lens assembly comprising a plurality of focus tunable lenses (FTLs) coaxially disposed along an optical axis, each of the FTLs contributing to an optical power of the lens assembly; and a controller configured to control the optical power of the lens assembly by respectively applying to each of the FTLs a respective control signal, thereby generating a periodic optical response of each of the respective FTLs, wherein the respective optical response of each of the FTLs is substantially different from the respective optical response of any other FTL of the plurality of FTLs, wherein the plurality of FTLs comprises a first FTL, a second FTL, and a third FTL, wherein the optical response of the first FTL approximates a first sum of a number of Fourier components of a desired optical response of the lens assembly, wherein the optical response of the second FTL approximates a second sum of a subset of the remainder of the Fourier components of the desired optical response of the lens assembly to compensate for a first residual of the first FTL, wherein the optical response of the third FTL approximates a third sum of the remaining Fourier components of the desired optical response of the lens assembly to compensate for a second residual of the second FTL, and wherein a sum of the respective optical response of each of the first FTL, the second FTL, and the third FTL approximates the desired optical response.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The above described aspects and implementation forms of the disclosure will be explained in the following description of specific embodiments in relation to the enclosed drawings, in which:

(2) FIG. 1 shows an example of a multifocal display device;

(3) FIG. 2 shows a control path of a multifocal display device;

(4) FIG. 3 shows an example of an optical staircase response of a lens assembly according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

(5) FIG. 4 shows an example of a lens assembly according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

(6) FIG. 5 shows an example of a signal path of an FTL according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

(7) FIG. 6 shows an example of a lens assembly of two FTLs according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

(8) FIG. 7 shows an example of a lens assembly of three FTLs according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

(9) FIG. 8 shows an example of a method according to an embodiment of the disclosure; and

(10) FIG. 9 shows an enlarged view of the step-up situation, the step-down situation, and the frequency spectrum from FIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(11) Multifocal plane display (MFD) optical systems are related to near eye displays (NED) or near-to-eye (NTE) applications or devices. An example of such a device 100 is shown in FIG. 1. MFD implementations can be categorized into spatially multiplexed or temporally/time multiplexed techniques. In a time multiplexed system as shown for the device 100 in FIG. 1, the viewing distance of a single 2D display from the eye is rapidly switched in synchronization with the rendering of frames of multiple focal planes to create a flicker-free perception. Such a device 100 uses ultrafast display elements 102 to sequentially display color images at a flicker fusion threshold speed (>=60 Hz frame rate), e.g. a Digital Micromirror Device (DMD) or Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal on Silicon (FLCoS). The next building blocks are high-speed focal modulator (or varifocal) elements 103, utilizing variable power lenses to continuously adjust or modulate the focal length or optical power, e.g. electrically tunable lenses or focus tunable lenses (FTL) and deformable membrane mirror devices (DMMD). MFD optical systems can provide a good balance between image quality and ease of implementation while alleviating VAC and enabling true volumetric 3D rendering.

(12) The MFD device 100 shown in FIG. 2 comprises a Master Controller 101, Display Elements 102 and Focal Modulator Elements 103 for generating a focused image for 3D perception. The Master controller 101 produces a signal of a certain current intensity to control the Focal Modulator Elements 103. The Focal Modulator Elements 103 use focus tunable lenses (FTL), wherein the optical power of the FTLs is adjusted by the control signal. In order to generate several optical power levels (e.g., 4 such levels, corresponding to 4 focal planes), a control signal in the form of a step current is applied along a lens control function path. However, due to lens inertia a significant oscillation artifact (overshoot+ringing) appears in the optical response of the FTLs, which is characterized by certain periods of oscillating perturbations like rise and settling times, which occur in a step-up 104 or step-down 105 situation, when the optical power of the FTL needs to be increased 104 or decreased 103 by a certain amount in order to jump to a different focal plane. Depending on the physical properties of the FTL, the FTLs behave like a resonant circuit, which naturally exhibit characteristic resonance frequencies visible as peaks in the frequency spectrum 106 of a typical FTL. FIG. 9 shows an enlarged view of the step-up situation, the step-down situation, and the frequency spectrum from FIG. 2.

(13) Described below is an optical system of multiple, closely coaxially disposed and separately controlled FTLs, designed to remedy at least some of the shortcomings mentioned above. The optical system will suffer less from oscillation artifacts, as can be seen in FIG. 3, as each of the multiple FTLs is driven by a control signal comprising only a particular frequency of interest. In this example, each lens is driven with its proper frequency (i.e. its free oscillation or fundamental frequency). This can be done by driving the FTL with a sinusoidal signal having a frequency equal to the fundamental frequency (i.e. the first harmonic) of the FTL. The combination of the optical responses of each of the sinusoidally driven FTLs then provides an ideal optical step response 303 or at least a much improved approximation 301, 302 of the desired ideal step response 304 of the optical system by technically applying the principle of Fourier Series and the harmonic oscillator in combination with (multiple) cascaded FTLs. Ideally, based on the Fourier decomposition of the ideal optical step response, an optical system of multiple FTLs can be constructed, whereby each FTL's optical response shall resemble a sinusoidal basis function, which corresponds to each Fourier component. The sum of these Fourier components guarantees the generation or at least close approximation of the desired ideal optical step response.

(14) An additional benefit of this arrangement lies in the fact that the undesirable delay of an optical system driven by instant changes of control signals can also be reduced. As a consequence, faster focal scanning rates, higher frame rates or the ability to accommodate more focal planes can be achieved.

(15) FIG. 3 shows the construction 300 of such an optical system according to an embodiment of the disclosure by employing up to 32 Fourier components, which corresponds to 32 FTLs, in order to obtain an ideal 303 or at least a much improved approximated step response 301, 302. The required number of Fourier components can certainly be reduced by employing a better desired optical step response, e.g., by having a symmetric staircase function which reduces the needed number of high frequency components.

(16) FIG. 4 shows a block diagram 400 of a corresponding embodiment of such an optical system of multiple FTLs 401. Based on the principle of Fourier Series, any periodic signal (in this case the ideal step optical response) can be decomposed into a set of oscillating functions namely sinusoidal signals 408, 409, 410. The Fourier decomposition gives a set of amplitudes D.sub.j indicating optical power measured in diopter and frequencies ω.sub.j=j*ω, where j=1, . . . , N, whereby in this technical context the amplitude and the frequency is the amplitude and frequency of the optical response O.sub.j 405, 406, 407 of each FTL and frequency j*ω, whereby for illustrative purposes only “Lens #1” 402, “Lens #2” 403 and “Lens # N” 404 and their respective frequencies ω, 2ω and Nω are shown.

(17) During the design process, a set of FTLs 402, 403, 404 may be chosen or manufactured to satisfy the requirement that each FTL has to yield an optical response 405, 406, 407, which oscillates at its respective frequency ω.sub.j according to the given Fourier decomposition. This is highly related to the FTL's properties (e.g., the diameter, fluid pump mechanism), which can be analyzed by its frequency response. Assuming, for example, differently sized FTLs, each FTL will then have a different frequency response and the desired control signal is decomposed so each FTL handles different frequency components (bigger FTLs handle lower frequency components, and vice versa). Knowing the frequency response of each FTL, a respective oscillating control signal 411, 412, 413 with frequency ω.sub.j is generated. The frequency ωj matches the fundamental frequency (also referred to herein as the lowest resonance or as the natural frequency) of the respective FTL, i.e. the lens is operated at resonance. Proper shaping of the FTL can thus be ensured. At higher resonances, the FTL will have an unwanted shape (not lens-like anymore). The current intensity I.sub.j 414, 415, 416 may be further tuned to adjust the optical power D.sub.j because both values are proportional to each other. In this embodiment it is assumed that the system delay is negligible or that there is a similar delay in each branch, which will easily be the case if each FTL is driven at its resonant frequency. This guarantees that the branches oscillate in phase with each other.

(18) Alternatively, a compound lens comprising multiple FTLs can also be realized by considering that an FTL may be driven 501 by a frequency ω.sub.j 506 other than its natural frequency η.sub.j 510 as shown in FIG. 5. Considering an FTL as a harmonic oscillator 508 with a damping factor c.sub.j 509 and a natural frequency η.sub.j 510, the lens control signal 504 can generally be a periodic signal. The periodic control signal may oscillate with an amplitude I.sub.j 505, a frequency ω.sub.j 506, and a phase lag ϕ.sub.j 507 between the control signal 504 and the optical response 512, depending on the difference between the frequency of the driving control signal ω.sub.j 506 and the natural frequency 510 of each respective FTL 508. The control signal parameters I.sub.j 505, ω.sub.j 506, and ϕ.sub.j 507 for the control signal x.sub.j(t) 504 for each FTL 508 can be derived knowing the expected optical response output using the well-known function of the (driven) harmonic oscillator function: f(D.sub.j, ω.sub.j, c.sub.j, η.sub.j), where Dj is the amplitude of the optical response output in dioptre. Hence, the design task is reduced to finding an FTL 508 having the parameters c.sub.j 509 and η.sub.j 510, whereby the FTLs natural frequency η.sub.j 510 is not necessarily the frequency ω.sub.j 506, at which it is driven 501, 504 to produce the actual optical response 512, which is the corresponding Fourier component.

(19) FIG. 5 depicts this scenario by identifying one single branch 500 of the complete lens assembly as shown in FIG. 4. In order to accommodate the mutual phase lags 507 of the optical responses 512, a phase controller 503 is disposed, which “harmonizes” the optical responses of each FTL by correcting their respective control signal 504 to achieve that all optical responses 512 are in-phase.

(20) In an embodiment, one or more or all FTLs are driven well below their respective natural frequency η.sub.j (resonant frequency), which has the advantage that only a low intensity (the lowest possible) is required and the phase shift is minimum (approaching zero).

(21) However, the basic idea of having a pure sinusoidal optical response on each FTL may not be desired in practice if there is not a way to optimally construct and assemble the FTLs to fit into a device, especially if the number of lenses is big, e.g., 32 lenses. To overcome such a problem, there are several alternative embodiments available which will only use few FTLs (2 or 3 FTLs).

(22) FIG. 6 depicts an embodiment of a lens assembly 606 with two FTLs, whereby the first FTL 607 generates an optical response 609 by being driven by a, e.g., sinusoidal driving function 603 or a periodic pulse 603, corresponding to a sum of a limited number of Fourier components of the desired optical response 610. According to the chosen embodiment the limited number of Fourier components may include: any one Fourier component; the fundamental component (i.e., the first component of the Fourier series of the where the frequency ω.sub.1 is greater than 0), wherein the frequency ω.sub.1 604 is the inverse of the period of the desired optical response and is consequently named fundamental frequency; only odd (1, 3, 5, . . . ) components; only even (2, 4, 6, . . . ) components; less than 10 or less than 5 components.

(23) The second FTL 608 then compensates for the residual components left by the first FTL by generating an optical response 611 approximating another sum of Fourier components taken from this residual set of components. In order to minimize this residual, the first FTL may be driven with an according control signal 603.

(24) The controller frequencies ω.sub.1 604 and ω.sub.2 613 correspond to or are near the fundamental or resonance frequency η.sub.1 and η.sub.2 of the first 607 and the second 608 FTL. The frequency ω.sub.1 is the fundamental frequency (inverse of the period) of the desired optical response of the lens assembly, and ω.sub.2 is the main or lowest frequency of the residual Fourier components of the lens assembly's desired optical response. Because the physical properties of each of the two FTLs 607 and 608 have to be chosen in a way to provide a satisfactory optical response for a plurality of frequencies corresponding to the Fourier components “assigned” to each of the two FTLs, the difference between frequencies ω.sub.1 and η.sub.1 (if any) and frequencies on ω.sub.1 and η.sub.2 (if any), and hence first phase lag ϕ.sub.1 605 and second phase lag ϕ.sub.2 612, might not be the same. Due to this circumstance, the signal generators 601 and 615 driving each of the two FTLs comprise phase controllers 602 and 614, which each compensate for the phase lags ϕ.sub.1 and ϕ.sub.2 between the main (lowest) frequencies ω.sub.1 604 and ω.sub.2 613 of the control signals 603, 616 and the according optical first 609 and second response 611.

(25) FIG. 7 depicts an embodiment of a lens assembly 706 with three FTLs 707, 708 and 709, whereby a first FTL 707 generates an optical response 710 by being driven by a e.g. sinusoidal driving function 703 or a periodic pulse 703, corresponding to a sum of a limited number of Fourier components of the desired optical response 711. The second FTL 712 in the lens assembly generates an optical response 712 approximating the sum of some of the remaining Fourier components in order to compensate for the residual of the first FTL 707, while not necessarily “covering” all remaining Fourier components as is the aim of the embodiment shown in FIG. 6. The third FTL 709 of the lens assembly 706 then generates an optical response 713 approximating the sum of the remaining Fourier components in order to compensate for the residual of the first 707 and second 708 FTL. Similarly, the Fourier components may include the components described for FIG. 6 in the bullet point section above.

(26) Again, it is to be noted that fundamental frequencies ω.sub.1, ω.sub.2, and ω.sub.3, referenced in FIG. 7 by numbers 704, 717 and 715, at which the first, the second and third FTL 707, 708 and 709 are driven, correspond to or are near the fundamental or resonance frequencies η.sub.1, η.sub.2, and η.sub.3 of the first, the second and the third FTL. Consequently, as has been elaborated above for the scenario in FIG. 6, three signal generators 701, 723 and 721 are disposed for each of the three FTLs, whereby each signal controller comprises a respective phase controller 702, 722 and 720. Each phase controller compensates for the respective phase lags ϕ.sub.1, ϕ.sub.2 and ϕ.sub.3, referenced in FIG. 7 by numbers 705, 718 and 714, between the respective main (lowest) frequencies ω.sub.1, ω.sub.2 and ω.sub.3 of the control signals 703, 719 and 716 and the according optical responses 710, 712 and 713.

(27) The disclosure also includes a method 800, which is shown in FIG. 8. The method 800 includes a step 801 of controlling an optical power of a lens assembly, which comprises a plurality of focus tunable lenses, FTLs, coaxially disposed along an optical axis of the lens assembly. The method 800 also includes a step 802 of applying to each FTL a respective control signal, thereby generating a periodic optical response of the respective FTL, wherein the optical response of each FTL contributes to the optical power of the lens assembly and is substantially different from the optical response from any other FTL of the plurality of FTLs.

(28) The detailed description and the figures show that an optical system of separately controlled FTLs, which are placed separately and coaxially along an optical axis of an optical system can produce an ideal optical step response or at least a close approximation thereof. Each FTL is thereby driven by signal generator to produce a periodic optical response, which corresponds to a number of Fourier components of the ideal optical step response. The sum of all Fourier components guarantees the generation of a desired ideal optical step response and annihilation of oscillation artifacts and signal delays.

(29) The invention has been described in conjunction with various embodiments as examples as well as implementations. However, other variations can be understood and effected by those persons skilled in the art and practicing the claimed invention, from the studies of the drawings, this disclosure and the independent claims. In the claims as well as in the description the word “comprising” does not exclude other elements or steps and the indefinite article “a” or “an” does not exclude a plurality. A single element or other unit may fulfill the functions of several entities or items recited in the claims. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in the mutual different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used in an advantageous implementation.