Technology Commercialization and Partnerships | BSA 01-15: Ultrathin Optical Panel

Category: electronics & instrumentation

BSA 01-15: Ultrathin Optical Panel

BNL Reference Number: BSA 01-15

Patent Status: U.S. Patent Number 6,519,400 was issued on February 11, 2003

Summary

The technology describes the design and fabrication of ultrathin optical displays that are compact and provide for improved contrast and viewing range.

Description

The invention describes an ultrathin optical display panel made by stacking a number of optical waveguides and the fabrication of the stacked optical panel. The waveguides are stacked horizontally and therefore have two faces, an inlet face that receives the image light and an outlet face that is parallel to the inlet face that displays the image. Each of the waveguides has a transparent core that is made of material such as plexiglass or polymers and is between 2 and 40 microns thick. The core is laminated between two cladding layers that have refraction index lower than that of the core material. The cladding material can be plastic, glass, polyurethane and low refractive index polymer or epoxy. The cladding layer can be either black or clear. When multiple cladding layers are used, for an improved viewing contrast, it is preferred that the black cladding layer be placed between adjacent cladding layers that are clear. The vertical resolution of the panel is dependent on the number of waveguides stacked along the height of the outlet face. The system also includes a light generation system and a coupler which acutely turns the light into the waveguides.

Benefits

Since the technology provides a light inlet that is large enough and symmetrical enough it avoids the requirement of projection equipment, while retaining the advantages of a stacked waveguide panel, thereby cutting down the cost and size of the optical display built using this technology.