Scanning laser beam displays based on a 2D MEMS

Maarten Niesten; Taha Masood; Josh Miller; Jason Tauscher

doi:10.1117/12.851412

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5 May 2010 Scanning laser beam displays based on a 2D MEMS

Maarten Niesten, Taha Masood, Josh Miller, Jason Tauscher

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Proceedings Volume 7723, Optics, Photonics, and Digital Technologies for Multimedia Applications; 77230U (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.851412
Event: SPIE Photonics Europe, 2010, Brussels, Belgium

Abstract

The combination of laser light sources and MEMS technology enables a range of display systems such as ultra small projectors for mobile devices, head-up displays for vehicles, wearable near-eye displays and projection systems for 3D imaging. Images are created by scanning red, green and blue lasers horizontally and vertically with a single two-dimensional MEMS. Due to the excellent beam quality of laser beams, the optical designs are efficient and compact. In addition, the laser illumination enables saturated display colors that are desirable for augmented reality applications where a virtual image is used. With this technology, the smallest projector engine for high volume manufacturing to date has been developed. This projector module has a height of 7 mm and a volume of 5 cc. The resolution of this projector is WVGA. No additional projection optics is required, resulting in an infinite focus depth. Unlike with micro-display projection displays, an increase in resolution will not lead to an increase in size or a decrease in efficiency. Therefore future projectors can be developed that combine a higher resolution in an even smaller and thinner form factor with increased efficiencies that will lead to lower power consumption.

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Maarten Niesten, Taha Masood, Josh Miller, and Jason Tauscher "Scanning laser beam displays based on a 2D MEMS", Proc. SPIE 7723, Optics, Photonics, and Digital Technologies for Multimedia Applications, 77230U (5 May 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.851412

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