Waveguides for Mixed Reality: Principles and Applications

Level: Intermediate Length: 4 hours Format: In-Person Lecture Intended Audience: Students or researchers in the field interested in improving their understanding of the science behind waveguides, and managers on MR development teams interested in making educated decisions internally and externally. Undergraduate training in engineering or science, and basic knowledge of optics and vector addition is assumed. Description: The AR/VR/MR industry has quickly adopted waveguide technology to create lightweight, compact, and see-through mixed reality headsets. A field that was non-existent ten years ago is now a multi-billion-dollar investment. This course will focus on principles and applications of waveguides for mixed reality. The first goal of the course will focus on the applications of waveguides for MR and the current waveguide technologies that are currently used and their operation. The second goal is to cover the principles of refractive and diffractive waveguides operation. For diffractive waveguides, the fundamentals of gratings and in particular, the Bragg equation, will be discussed. For refractive waveguides, an explanation of the theory behind them will be covered with emphasis on their limitations and advantages. A good understanding of the theory can support the design of waveguides for AR and potentially create new solutions for the field. Learning Outcomes: This course will enable you to: - describe how a waveguide is used to make an HMD, differentiate between its function as a combiner and an exit pupil expander and explain the purpose of the display engine - list the different kinds of waveguides - describe, analyze and compute the light path in space in a waveguide-based HMD and compute the propagation angles - describe in k-space, how the rays propagate from the display engine to the user’s eye - describe the Bragg condition and how it is applied in thin and thick holograms - compute the diffraction angle (and efficiency) from a volume Bragg grating - compute (with the help of a computer) the path of a ray within a waveguide - describe the basic principle of RCWA Instructor(s): Andreas Georgiou has been working in Mixed Reality optics for more than a decade. Before that, he worked in medical imaging and space instrumentation. Optical engineer by training, Andreas is particularly interested in diffractive and computational optics and their applications in head mounded displays, three-dimensional displays, and sensors. Currently, he is a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research and a Fellow at Robinson College, University of Cambridge. He obtained his Ph.D. in diffractive optics from the University of Cambridge. Event: SPIE Photonics West 2023 Course Held: 30 January 2023