CEA-Leti Showcases 4 Papers at Photonics West 2021
CEA-Leti has showcased four papers, related to integrating optics and silicon photonics, at Photonics West 2021 Digital Forum that show key steps toward improved AR capabilities with retinal projection.
“Silicon photonics is to optics what microelectronics is to electronics: a solution for integration that underlies the development of smaller and more energy-efficient devices,” said Christophe Martinez, an expert from CEA-Leti’s retinal projection team that presented the papers. “The tremendous growth of mobile phone use would not have been possible without the achievements in microelectronics. We expect silicon photonics to bring comparable advances in optical systems.”
The papers and summaries follow.
Pixelated Holographic Reflector Recording for Retinal Projection Devices
Investigating new optical configurations for augmented reality (AR) designs using CEA-Leti’s previous development of silicon photonics in the infrared range, the project team applied that capability to the visible spectral range and combined it with recent success in pixelating holograms. The success with pixelated holograms informed the research of the other papers.
“We demonstrated for the first time at CEA-Leti our capability to record a series of microscopic holograms with good uniformity,” said Martinez. “This approach gives us early insights into the photo material behavior, and will help us increase the complexity of our next holograms.”
Analysis of New Optical Addressing Strategies for the Optimization of Retinal Projection Display
This paper investigates CEA-Leti’s concept of self-focusing and presents new information on the diffraction phenomenon involved in that process.
“The way we form the image on the retina is different from the conventional approach. We need to understand all the physical phenomena that could allow a better device design,” Martinez said.
Experimental Validation of SiN Photonic Integrated Waveguide Arrays at λ = 532 nm for Augmented Reality Display Applications
The team on this project is developing an innovative and compact retinal projection display concept for AR applications that will diverge from conventional optics by using a device based on an integrated photonics architecture.
Improved Mathematical Model for a Dense Network of Waveguide and Electrode Design
This paper introduces a mathematical model used to design a network of waveguides and electrodes with random behavior. This model is required to address the light in the display in an efficient way.
CEA-Leti will unveil its retinal-projection display concept with a static demonstrator later this year. The project team also will begin working on a demonstration of dynamic retinal projection.
