Patent ID: 11892640
Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
Field: Optics (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 16:
17. A method for fabricating a waveguide combiner with stacked plates, the waveguide combiner utilizable in a mixed-reality environment in which virtual images are mixed with real-world images, comprising:
cutting a plurality of blanks from a sheet of planar transparent optical substrate, wherein each blank has a commonly shared shape and size, and each blank has a partially-reflecting coating disposed over at least a portion of at least one planar surface;
bonding the plurality of blanks to form one or more sets of stacked blanks;
cutting the one or more sets of the stacked blanks along a set of parallel cutting planes at a first angle to form a first reflective optical element (ROE) having a set of cascaded mirror elements formed from the partially-reflecting coating disposed on the at least one planar surface of each of the blanks;
cutting the one or more sets of the stacked blanks along a set of parallel cutting planes at a second angle that is different from the first angle to form a second ROE having a set of cascaded mirror elements formed from the partially-reflecting coating disposed on the at least one planar surface of each of the blanks;
bonding the first ROE to a first waveguide to create a top plate of the waveguide combiner, the top plate further comprising an input coupler configured for in-coupling the virtual images to the waveguide combiner;
bonding the second ROE to a second waveguide to create a bottom plate of the waveguide combiner, the bottom plate further comprising an out-coupling ROE configured for one-dimensional expansion of an exit pupil of the virtual images in a first direction and out-coupling the virtual images from the waveguide combiner; and
assembling the top and bottom plates in a stack to form the waveguide combiner, wherein the first ROE in the top plate is configured for one-dimensional expansion of the exit pupil and coupling the virtual image light to the second ROE in the bottom plate, and wherein the second ROE in the bottom plate is configured to couple the virtual image light to the out-coupling ROE.