Design and experiments of planar optical light guides for virtual image displays

Planar optical light guides that are suitable for compact, relatively large virtual image projection displays, of either see-through or non-see-through capabilities, are presented. Such light guides are comprised of three diffractive elements that are recorded on a single substrate. The basic principles, design methods, experimental procedures, calculated as well as experimental results are presented. The results reveal that a relatively large field of view and uniform luminance over the entire output image can be obtained, even when the distance from the light guide to the viewer is relatively large.