23.1: Optical Design of a Compact see-through Head-mounted Display with Light Guide Plate

A see-through head mounted display (HMD) with a compact size is designed, with a light guide plate system adopted to decrease the volume of the system. The key design feature of this invention is the see-through HMD which is based on a light guide plate with a trapezoidal microstructure. The proposed design is extremely compact compared to the conventional HMD system. The HMD serves as a near-eye viewing optical system that magnifies an image which is displayed through a microdisplay. Based on a 0.61 in. microdisplay, the HMD system has a diagonal field of view (FOV) of 30 degree and an f/# of 3.66, with an exit pupil diameter of 8 mm and eye relief of 15mm.