Optimizing the uniformity and efficiency of AR waveguide displays with an open-source beam tracing method

Area of Science:

• Optics
• Computer Science
• Display Technology

Background:

• Augmented reality (AR) displays face challenges with optical efficiency and brightness uniformity in waveguide systems.
• Existing simulation methods often lack the necessary accuracy or computational efficiency for effective waveguide optimization.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a physically accurate and computationally efficient simulation framework for optimizing waveguide-based AR displays.
• To address the trade-off between optical efficiency and brightness uniformity in AR systems.

Main Methods:

• Developed an open-source beam tracing model incorporating grating multi-interaction effects.
• Implemented beam reuse, parallel CPU processing, and data compression for accelerated simulations.
• Achieved a simulation speed over 100 times faster than traditional non-sequential ray tracing tools.

Main Results:

• The framework enables efficient optimization of optical efficiency and brightness uniformity.
• Demonstrated an average evaluation time of 0.417 seconds per simulation.
• The method significantly enhances the speed of iterative waveguide design and optimization.

Conclusions:

• The proposed beam tracing framework effectively overcomes major challenges in AR waveguide display design.
• This tool is highly valuable for iterative design and optimization, leading to improved AR display performance.