Disclosure of Invention
Accordingly, there is a need for an optical waveguide module and an electronic device to reduce the thickness of the optical waveguide module.
An optical waveguide module, comprising:
a first optical waveguide having a first input region and a first output region spaced apart from each other;
a second optical waveguide having a second input region and a second output region spaced apart from each other, the second input region being opposite the first input region, the second output region being opposite the first output region;
the first input area can couple and input a first primary color light and a second primary color light into the first optical waveguide, the second input area can couple and input a third primary color light into the second optical waveguide, and the wavelength ranges of the first primary color light, the third primary color light and the second primary color light are sequentially decreased progressively.
In one embodiment, a surface of the second optical waveguide, which is away from the first optical waveguide, forms a light incident surface of the optical waveguide module, and the first input region and the second input region are respectively formed on sides of the first optical waveguide and the second optical waveguide, which are away from the light incident surface.
In one embodiment, the first primary color light is red band light, the second primary color light is blue band light, and the third primary color light is green band light.
In one embodiment, the optical waveguide module further includes a red holographic grating, a blue holographic grating, and a green holographic grating, the red holographic grating and the blue holographic grating are stacked on one side of the first optical waveguide departing from the light incident surface of the optical waveguide module to form the first input region, and the green holographic grating is disposed on one side of the second optical waveguide departing from the light incident surface of the optical waveguide module to form the second input region.
In one embodiment, the red holographic grating is disposed on a side of the blue holographic grating away from the light incident surface.
In one embodiment, the optical waveguide module further includes a red holographic grating, a blue holographic grating, and a green holographic grating, the red holographic grating and the blue holographic grating are stacked on one side of the first optical waveguide deviating from the light incident surface of the optical waveguide module to form the first output region, and the green holographic grating is disposed on one side of the second optical waveguide deviating from the light incident surface of the optical waveguide module to form the second output region.
In one embodiment, the optical waveguide module further includes a first transmission grating disposed in the first optical waveguide, the first transmission grating being located on a propagation path of light in the first optical waveguide, and a second transmission grating disposed in the second optical waveguide and located on a propagation path of light in the second optical waveguide.
In one embodiment, each of the first transmission grating and the second transmission grating includes a transparent substrate, a plurality of diffraction traces parallel to each other are disposed on a surface of the transparent substrate, and a diffraction slit is formed between every two diffraction traces.
In one embodiment, the diffraction slits of the second transmission grating are adapted to green band light.
An electronic device comprises a display module and the optical waveguide module of any one of the embodiments, wherein the display module emits light towards the first input area and the second input area.
In the optical waveguide module, one optical waveguide is used for transmitting light rays with two wave bands, and the other optical waveguide is used for transmitting light rays with one wave band. Therefore, light rays in three wave bands can be transmitted only by arranging two optical waveguides, the thickness size of the optical waveguide module can be reduced, and the miniaturization design of the AR electronic equipment is facilitated. Furthermore, the third primary color light with the wavelength range between first primary color light and second primary color light is conducted through the second optical waveguide independently, the first primary color light with the larger wavelength range difference and the second primary color light are conducted through the first optical waveguide together, the condition that light mixing occurs when two kinds of light with the similar wavelength ranges are conducted through one piece of optical waveguide can be avoided, and the image output by the optical waveguide module is ensured to have good imaging quality. In addition, light of three kinds of wave bands is conducted through the two optical waveguides to meet the image display requirement, so that the total path length of the light conducted in the optical waveguide module can be reduced, the conditions of light dispersion, light mixing and the like are reduced, the imaging quality of light in the edge field of view is improved, the generation of stray light in the edge field of view is reduced, more light in the edge field of view can participate in imaging, and the effect of expanding the field angle of the optical waveguide module is achieved.
Detailed Description
In order to make the aforementioned objects, features and advantages of the present invention comprehensible, embodiments accompanied with figures are described in detail below. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein.
In the description of the present invention, it is to be understood that the terms "central," "longitudinal," "lateral," "length," "width," "thickness," "upper," "lower," "front," "rear," "left," "right," "vertical," "horizontal," "top," "bottom," "inner," "outer," "clockwise," "counterclockwise," "axial," "radial," "circumferential," and the like are used in the orientations and positional relationships indicated in the drawings for convenience in describing the invention and to simplify the description, and are not intended to indicate or imply that the referenced device or element must have a particular orientation, be constructed and operated in a particular orientation, and are not to be considered limiting of the invention.
Furthermore, the terms "first", "second" and "first" are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated. Thus, a feature defined as "first" or "second" may explicitly or implicitly include at least one such feature. In the description of the present invention, "a plurality" means at least two, e.g., two, three, etc., unless specifically limited otherwise.
In the present invention, unless otherwise explicitly stated or limited, the terms "mounted," "connected," "fixed," and the like are to be construed broadly, e.g., as being permanently connected, detachably connected, or integral; can be mechanically or electrically connected; they may be directly connected or indirectly connected through intervening media, or they may be connected internally or in any other suitable relationship, unless expressly stated otherwise. The specific meanings of the above terms in the present invention can be understood according to specific situations by those of ordinary skill in the art.
In the present invention, unless otherwise expressly stated or limited, the first feature "on" or "under" the second feature may be directly contacting the first and second features or indirectly contacting the first and second features through an intermediate. Also, a first feature "on," "over," and "above" a second feature may be directly or diagonally above the second feature, or may simply indicate that the first feature is at a higher level than the second feature. A first feature being "under," "below," and "beneath" a second feature may be directly under or obliquely under the first feature, or may simply mean that the first feature is at a lesser elevation than the second feature.
It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being "secured to" or "disposed on" another element, it can be directly on the other element or intervening elements may also be present. When an element is referred to as being "connected" to another element, it can be directly connected to the other element or intervening elements may also be present. As used herein, the terms "vertical," "horizontal," "upper," "lower," "left," "right," and the like are for purposes of illustration only and do not denote a single embodiment.
Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating adisplay module 200 and anoptical waveguide module 100 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Thelight waveguide module 100 has an input area and an output area, thedisplay module 200 can emit light toward the input area of thelight waveguide module 100, the input area couples the light into the light waveguide, so that the light is transmitted to the output area in the light waveguide, and the output area couples and outputs the light to thehuman eye 300. Therefore, thehuman eye 300 can receive the virtual information generated by thedisplay module 200 facing the input area of theoptical waveguide module 100, in other words, due to the arrangement of theoptical waveguide module 100, thedisplay module 200 does not need to be in front of the line of sight of thehuman eye 300, and the virtual information generated by thedisplay module 200 can be received by thehuman eye 300 and further fused with the real information in front of the line of sight of thehuman eye 300 to form the AR image. Therefore, theoptical waveguide module 100 can be assembled with thedisplay module 200 to form an electronic device (not shown) using AR display technology, wherein the electronic device includes, but is not limited to, AR glasses, and mobile AR devices such as smart phones and tablet computers having AR display functions.
It can be understood that, in the present application, the virtual information generated by thedisplay module 200 may be understood as image information generated by thedisplay module 200, the light carrying the image information is transmitted by theoptical waveguide module 100 to form an image projected to thehuman eye 300, the real information may be understood as a real environment image in front of the line of sight of thehuman eye 300, and after the environment light is projected to thehuman eye 300, the real environment image and the virtual image are fused to form an AR image.
In addition, in the embodiment shown in fig. 1, thedisplay module 200 includes adisplay 210 and anoptical element 220, and the light emitted from thedisplay 210 is adjusted by theoptical element 220 and then emitted toward theoptical waveguide module 100. In other embodiments, thedisplay module 200 may be disposed in other ways as long as the light carrying the virtual image information can be projected to the input area of theoptical waveguide module 100.
Specifically, in some embodiments, theoptical waveguide module 100 includes a firstoptical waveguide 110 and a secondoptical waveguide 120, the firstoptical waveguide 110 has afirst input region 111 and afirst output region 112 spaced apart from each other, the secondoptical waveguide 120 has asecond input region 121 and asecond output region 122, thefirst input region 111 is opposite to thesecond input region 121, and thefirst output region 112 is opposite to thesecond output region 122. For example, in the embodiment shown in fig. 1, thedisplay module 200 is disposed on a side of the secondoptical waveguide 120 departing from the firstoptical waveguide 110, and light emitted by thedisplay module 200 enters theoptical waveguide module 100 from a surface of the secondoptical waveguide 120 departing from the firstoptical waveguide 110, and then the surface of the secondoptical waveguide 120 departing from the firstoptical waveguide 110 can be regarded as thelight incident surface 123 of theoptical waveguide module 100. It is understood that the regions of thelight incident surface 123 opposite to thefirst input region 111 and thesecond input region 121 can be regarded as the input regions of theoptical waveguide module 100, and the regions of thelight incident surface 123 opposite to thefirst output region 112 and thesecond output region 122 can be regarded as the output regions of theoptical waveguide module 100.
Further, the light emitted from thedisplay module 200 includes a firstprimary color light 230, a secondprimary color light 240, and a thirdprimary color light 250, wherein the wavelength ranges of the firstprimary color light 230, the thirdprimary color light 250, and the secondprimary color light 240 decrease in sequence. When the light emitted from thedisplay module 200 enters thelight waveguide module 100 from the input region, thefirst input region 111 can couple the firstprimary color light 230 and the secondprimary color light 240 into thefirst light waveguide 110, and thesecond input region 121 can couple the thirdprimary color light 250 out of the secondlight waveguide 120. After being guided by thefirst light guide 110 and the secondlight guide 120, the firstprimary color light 230 and the secondprimary color light 240 are coupled and output in thefirst output region 112, and the thirdprimary color light 250 is coupled and output in thesecond output region 122, so that the light of three bands is output in the output region of thelight guide module 100 and transmitted to thehuman eye 300 to form a virtual information image.
It should be noted that the firstprimary color light 230, the secondprimary color light 240, and the thirdprimary color light 250 do not refer to three lights with a single wavelength, but should be understood as three lights with different color bands, and the wavelength ranges of the three lights do not overlap. For example, in some embodiments, the firstprimary color light 230 may be red band light, the secondprimary color light 240 may be blue band light, and the thirdprimary color light 250 may be green band light. Of course, the three lights may be three lights of other three primary color systems as long as the requirement of image display can be satisfied. In addition, the three lights can be full-wave band lights of three primary color wave bands, and can also be lights of any partial continuous wavelength range in the three primary color wave bands. For example, in some embodiments, the wavelength range of the red band light is between 622nm and 760nm, and the wavelength range of the firstprimary color light 230 may be between 622nm and 760nm, or any partially continuous wavelength range between 622nm and 760 nm. Of course, the wavelength range of each primary color band light may have other settings, and the wavelength ranges of the firstprimary color light 230, the secondprimary color light 240, and the thirdprimary color light 250 may also have other values, which may be specifically selected according to the image display requirements as long as a virtual image can be formed.
It will be appreciated that in the embodiment shown in fig. 1, the optical path of firstprimary light ray 230 schematically shows only the optical path of a portion of light rays in firstprimary light ray 230, and that in other embodiments, other wavelengths of light rays in firstprimary light ray 230 may also travel along other paths within firstoptical waveguide 110. And the light is inputted from thefirst input region 111 and outputted from thesecond output region 122, and the light is not accidentally outputted from thefirst input region 111 directly to thefirst output region 112 along the firstoptical waveguide 110, in other embodiments, the light with partial wavelength in the firstprimary color light 230 can be outputted to thefirst output region 112 after being inputted to the firstoptical waveguide 110 along the firstoptical waveguide 110 and after being repeatedly outputted along the firstoptical waveguide 110.
In theoptical waveguide module 100, one optical waveguide is used for transmitting light of two wavelength bands, and the other optical waveguide is used for transmitting light of one wavelength band. Therefore, only two optical waveguides are arranged to transmit light in three wave bands to meet the requirement of image display, so that the thickness of theoptical waveguide module 100 can be reduced, and when theoptical waveguide module 100 is applied to electronic equipment, the miniaturization design of the electronic equipment is facilitated.
Further, the thirdprimary color light 250 with the wavelength range between the firstprimary color light 230 and the secondprimary color light 240 is separately transmitted through the secondlight waveguide 120, and the firstprimary color light 230 with the larger wavelength range difference and the secondprimary color light 240 are transmitted through thefirst light waveguide 110 together, so that light mixing is not easy to occur, the condition that light mixing occurs when two light rays with the similar wavelength ranges are transmitted through one light waveguide can be avoided, and the image output by thelight waveguide module 100 has good imaging quality.
In addition, the light of three wave bands is transmitted through the two optical waveguides, the overall thickness size of theoptical waveguide module 100 is reduced, and the total path length of the whole light of the three wave bands transmitted in theoptical waveguide module 100 can be reduced, so that the conditions of light dispersion, light mixing and the like are reduced, the imaging quality of the light of the edge field of view is improved, the generation of stray light of the edge field of view is reduced, and more light of the edge field of view can participate in imaging. In other words, during imaging, a larger aperture can be used to make more light rays participate in imaging in the peripheral field of view, thereby achieving the effect of enlarging the field angle of theoptical waveguide module 100. Specifically, in some embodiments, the overall thickness dimension of theoptical waveguide module 100 is less than 3mm, and the maximum field angle of theoptical waveguide module 100 is greater than 50 °.
Further, in some embodiments, the light coupling-in of theoptical waveguide module 100 is realized by a holographic grating. Specifically, in some embodiments, theoptical waveguide module 100 includes a redholographic grating 130, a blueholographic grating 140 and a greenholographic grating 150, wherein the redholographic grating 130 and the blueholographic grating 140 are stacked on a side of the firstoptical waveguide 110 away from thelight incident surface 123, so as to form thefirst input region 111 on the side of the firstoptical waveguide 110 away from thelight incident surface 123. The greenholographic grating 150 is disposed on a side of the secondlight waveguide 120 away from thelight incident surface 123, and is located between thefirst light waveguide 110 and the secondlight waveguide 120, so as to form asecond input region 121 on a side of the secondlight waveguide 120 away from thelight incident surface 123.
It can be understood that, when the light reaches the greenholographic grating 150 through thelight incident surface 123, thelight 250 of the third primary color is diffracted in the greenholographic grating 150 and then input into the secondlight waveguide 120. After passing through the green hologram grating 150, the firstprimary color light 230 and the secondprimary color light 240 respectively generate optical phenomena such as diffraction in the red hologram grating 130 and the blue hologram grating 140, and then are input into the firstoptical waveguide 110.
In the present application, a holographic grating of a certain primary color is described, and it is understood that after an incident light enters the holographic grating, the light of the primary color in the incident light can be coupled by the holographic grating and emitted from an incident surface. Of course, the holographic grating of a primary color does not mean that light of other primary colors cannot be coupled into the optical waveguide by the holographic grating, for example, the light coupled into the secondoptical waveguide 120 by the greenholographic grating 150 may include part of the light 230 of the first primary color as long as normal imaging is not affected.
Further, in some embodiments, the redholographic grating 130 is disposed on a side of the blueholographic grating 140 away from thelight incident surface 123. The wavelength range of the firstprimary color light 230 is greater than the wavelength range of the secondprimary color light 240, that is, the firstprimary color light 230 can more easily transmit the blueholographic grating 140, in other words, the light loss when the firstprimary color light 230 transmits the blueholographic grating 140 is smaller than the light loss when the secondprimary color light 240 transmits the redholographic grating 130. Therefore, compared with the situation that the blueholographic grating 140 is arranged on the side, away from thelight incident surface 123, of the redholographic grating 130, the loss of light rays when the holographic grating is transmitted can be reduced, and the imaging quality of theoptical waveguide module 100 is improved.
Certainly, thefirst input region 111 and thesecond input region 121 may also be disposed in other ways, for example, in other embodiments, thefirst input region 111 is formed on the surface of the firstoptical waveguide 110 facing the secondoptical waveguide 120, and thesecond input region 121 is formed on the surface of the secondoptical waveguide 120 facing away from the firstoptical waveguide 110, so that other types of gratings need to be used to implement the coupling input of the light, which is not described herein again.
In addition, the light out-coupling in theoptical waveguide module 100 can also be realized by a holographic grating, specifically, in some embodiments, theoptical waveguide module 100 further includes another set of redholographic grating 130, blueholographic grating 140, and greenholographic grating 150. The redholographic grating 130 and the blueholographic grating 140 are stacked on one side of the firstoptical waveguide 110 away from thelight incident surface 123 of theoptical waveguide module 100 to form afirst output region 112, and the greenholographic grating 150 is disposed on one side of the secondoptical waveguide 120 away from thelight incident surface 123 of theoptical waveguide module 100 to form asecond output region 122.
Further, referring to fig. 1 and 2 together, fig. 2 shows a schematic diagram of providing the second transmission grating 160 in some embodiments of the present application. In some embodiments, theoptical waveguide module 100 further includes a first transmission grating (not shown) disposed in the firstoptical waveguide 110 and located on the propagation path of the light in the firstoptical waveguide 110, and a second transmission grating 160 disposed in the secondoptical waveguide 120 and located on the propagation path of the light in the secondoptical waveguide 120.
It should be noted that, in the embodiment shown in fig. 2, only a schematic diagram of disposing the second transmission grating 160 in the secondoptical waveguide 120 is shown, and the manner of disposing the first transmission grating in the firstoptical waveguide 110 may be the same as that of disposing the second transmission grating 160. In addition, the number of thesecond transmission gratings 160 is not limited, and in some embodiments, the second transmission grating 160 is provided in plurality, and the plurality of transmission gratings are sequentially disposed in the secondoptical waveguide 120 at intervals. The second transmission grating 160 is located in the propagation path of the light in the secondoptical waveguide 120, and it can be understood that most of the light 250 of the third primary color transmitted through the secondoptical waveguide 120 passes through the second transmission grating 160. Further, in some embodiments, the second transmission grating 160 is located in the middle of the secondoptical waveguide 120, in other words, the second transmission grating 160 is parallel to thelight incident surface 123, and distances from the second transmission grating 160 to thelight incident surface 123 and a surface of the secondoptical waveguide 120 opposite to thelight incident surface 123 are equal.
Referring to fig. 1, it can be understood that, when the second transmission grating 160 is not provided in the secondoptical waveguide 120, the light inputted into the secondoptical waveguide 120 through the green hologram grating 150 reaches thesecond output region 122 after being totally reflected a plurality of times on the surface of the secondoptical waveguide 120. Referring to fig. 2, after the secondlight guide 120 is provided with the second transmission grating 160, the thirdprimary color light 250 is input into the secondlight guide 120 through thesecond input region 121, the thirdprimary color light 250 reaching the second transmission grating 160 will be diffracted for a distance in the second transmission grating 160 and then emitted, and then enters the next second transmission grating 160 after being totally reflected on the surface of the secondlight guide 120. The third primary color light rays 250 are shorter in the secondoptical waveguide 120 conducting path than in the case where the second transmission grating 160 is not provided. Therefore, the second transmission grating 160 can reduce the transmission path of the thirdprimary color light 250 in the secondoptical waveguide 120, thereby reducing the dispersion phenomenon of the thirdprimary color light 250 in the transmission process, reducing the loss of the imaging light, improving the light transmission efficiency, and further improving the imaging quality of theoptical waveguide module 100. The effect of the first transmission grating in the firstoptical waveguide 110 can be derived from the effect of the second transmission grating 160, and will not be described herein.
Of course, the specific arrangement of the transmission grating is not limited as long as the conducting path of the light can be reduced, for example, as shown in fig. 2 and fig. 3, fig. 3 illustrates a schematic diagram of the second transmission grating 160 in some embodiments of the present application, in some embodiments, the second transmission grating 160 includes atransparent substrate 161, the shape of thetransparent substrate 161 may be substantially rectangular parallelepiped, and the extending direction of thetransparent substrate 161 is parallel to thelight incident surface 123, in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, the surface a may be regarded as a surface of the second transmission grating 160 away from thelight incident surface 123. The two opposite surfaces of thetransparent substrate 161 are provided with a plurality of diffraction marks 162 parallel to each other, adiffraction slit 163 is formed between every twodiffraction marks 162, and the light 250 of the third primary color reaching the second transmission grating 160 can be diffracted in the diffraction slit 163 and transmitted for a certain distance in the second transmission grating 160.
Further, it can be understood that the thickness of thetransparent substrate 161 in the second transmission grating 160 and the distance between every two diffraction traces 162 can affect the diffraction effect of light rays with different wavelength bands in the second transmission grating 160. Therefore, in some embodiments, by designing the thickness of the light-transmittingsubstrate 161 and the distance between twodiffraction marks 162, the diffraction slits 163 of the second transmission grating 160 are adapted to the green band light, in other words, the third-primary-color light 250 is diffracted well in the second transmission grating 160, so that the second transmission grating 160 can better reduce the conduction path of the third-primary-color light 250 in the secondlight waveguide 120. Of course, the diffraction slits 163 of the first transmission grating can be adapted to the red band light and the blue band light, so that the first transmission grating can better reduce the conduction paths of the firstprimary color light 230 and the secondprimary color light 240 in the firstoptical waveguide 110.
The technical features of the embodiments described above may be arbitrarily combined, and for the sake of brevity, all possible combinations of the technical features in the embodiments described above are not described, but should be considered as being within the scope of the present specification as long as there is no contradiction between the combinations of the technical features.
The above-mentioned embodiments only express several embodiments of the present invention, and the description thereof is more specific and detailed, but not construed as limiting the scope of the invention. It should be noted that, for a person skilled in the art, several variations and modifications can be made without departing from the inventive concept, which falls within the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present patent should be subject to the appended claims.