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

Claim 7:
8. A head-mounted display (HMD) device wearable by a user and supporting a mixed-reality experience comprising a display of virtual images for objects in a virtual world and real-world images for objects in a real world, comprising:
a display engine generating one or more optical beams for the virtual images; and
a waveguide combiner comprising a stack of plates including a top plate and a bottom plate,
wherein the top plate comprises a top waveguide, an input coupler disposed on the top waveguide, and a top reflective optical element (ROE) disposed on the top waveguide, and
wherein the bottom plate includes a bottom waveguide, a bottom ROE disposed on the bottom waveguide and an output coupler disposed on the bottom waveguide, and
wherein the top and bottom ROEs have a common shape and size and are axially aligned in the stack of plates, and
wherein the one or more optical beams from the display engine are in-coupled by the input coupler into the waveguide combiner, propagated by the top waveguide to the top ROE, propagated in the top ROE with expanded exit pupil in a horizontal direction, coupled by the top ROE to the bottom ROE, propagated by the bottom waveguide to the output coupler, propagated in the output coupler with expanded exit pupil in a vertical direction, and out-coupled from the waveguide combiner to at least one eye of the user by the output coupler.