Blazed gratings are widely used for surface relief grating (SRG) waveguides for augmented reality displays. To increase the efficiency and design freedom of blazed gratings the control of the anti-blaze angle has gained attention lately. We will demonstrate mastering processes to realize blazed gratings with positive, vertical and negative anti-blaze angles on masters for the replication of SRG waveguides.
Nanoimprinting of surface-relief grating-based waveguides has the potential to produce one of the industry-leading augmented reality (AR) smart glasses, but there are still many challenges in the design, scaling, and reproducibility of these imprinted waveguides. A promising path toward mass manufacturing of optical waveguide combiners is via large-area nanoimprinting. Here, we present the complete value chain with partners involved throughout the process: from design, mastering, and materials to imprinting and metrology, to prove that this method improves not only the manufacturing throughput but also the waveguide quality. We demonstrate that the replication and image quality are true to the intended design using large area, high refractive index (n = 1.9), square (300 mm × 300 mm) glass substrates with high-refractive index resins (n = 1.9). This is shown to be valid for over 100 replications and for large area nanoimprinting (Gen5, 1100 mm × 1300 mm). Our goal is to demonstrate a viable path toward high-volume and low-cost manufacturing of AR waveguides based on surface relief gratings.
Nanoimprinting of surface-relief grating-based waveguides has the potential to result in the best performing Augmented Reality (AR) smart glasses, but there are still many challenges in the design, scaling, and reproducibility of these imprinted waveguides. We presented a promising path toward mass manufacturing of optical waveguide combiners via large-area nanoimprinting at SPIE AR/VR/MR 2022. This alternative route for manufacturing surface-relief gratings on a larger area generated much interest. This follow-up paper presents a further optimized design based on the lessons learned from the previous paper, with a particular focus on quality. The complete value chain with partners is involved throughout the process of this iterative update: from design, mastering, and materials to imprinting and metrology, to prove that this method improves not only the manufacturing throughput but also the waveguide quality. We demonstrate that both the replication and image quality is true to the intended design using large area, high refractive index (1.9 RI), square (300 x 300mm) glass substrates with high refractive index resins (1.9 RI). Our objective is to further establish this new approach towards high-volume and low-cost manufacturing of waveguides based on surface relief gratings as a viable path forward for enabling the Metaverse.
Larger field of view, better image quality and higher efficiency in Augmented Reality (AR) glasses demands masters with large uniform diffraction gratings. Typically, a surface relief waveguide master is composed of input, output and deflection/expander gratings which all can either be slanted, blazed or binary gratings. Control of the angle of slanted and blazed gratings especially over large areas is an important parameter towards high quality large area gratings. Here we demonstrate large area diffraction gratings for AR applications where the angle uniformity is demonstrated to be +/- 1 degree across an 8-inch wafer. NIL technology has been pioneering the development of high quality large area slanted, binary and blazed grating masters and offers customizable solutions for all of the above-mentioned types of gratings and the gratings can be combined with 100% design freedom on the masters.
A promising path towards consumer electronics-ready manufacturing of optical waveguide combiners is via large-area nanoimprinted surface relief gratings on high index glass substrates. Presently, this is realized through equipment and substrates based on wafer format (up to 12-inch). In this work, we present a way to produce waveguides with surface relief gratings utilizing the entire value chain from design to mastering to replication on panel-level nanoimprint equipment using rectangular high refractive index glass substrates and high refractive index resins. This is demonstrated on a greater than Gen 3 panel size (550 mm x 650 mm). The fabricated waveguides are optically tested to validate the design and the value chain. We demonstrate that the quality of the large area imprints is similar to present wafer-level imprints. Thus, we introduce a new approach towards high volume and low-cost manufacturing of waveguides based on surface relief gratings.
To meet the demand for high quality augmented reality displays with larger field of view, large eye box and better image quality, large area diffraction gratings are needed. Across the industry different types of surface relief gratings for in-coupling and out-coupling are used in the waveguide designs to achieve the optimum performance of the waveguide. Typical gratings are slanted, blazed, binary and multi-level gratings. NIL Technology offers solutions for all of the above-mentioned types of gratings meeting the demand for high quality and size of in particular the output gratings from the market.
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