A compact and low power SLM system for augmented reality applications

For augmented reality applications, the micro display panels are generally used, as a straightforward method for display engines. But there are the light efficiency and vergence accommodation conflict problems, which affect the performance and application of the AR glasses, HMD and HUDs. One way to solve the problem is to use holography display instead of direct display, which exploit the diffraction light instead of reflection light of the liquid crystal panel. One of the big problems is the form factor of holographic systems which use SLM. Most of current SLMs are composed of a driver board with FPGA and a liquid crystal on silicon panel. The FPGA driver board is big and very power consuming, which makes it better for general SLM systems that cares more about changing the driving algorithm flexibly rather than make it a wearable gadget. A compact SLM system is designed specifically for AR applications, which replaced the normally used FPGA system with a driver IC and greatly reduce they whole system size and power consumption while realize the same function for holographic display. The driver IC could receive the RGB signal or MIPI signal and transform the standard picture signal to a high frame rate color sequential signal, also the gray scale could be tuned through on chip registers either beforehand or instantly, which makes it good for liquid crystals working in different wavelength. The driver board is 2*6 cm2 with a type-C connector which could easily transmit image data from a laptop or a cellphone. This form factor is almost the same with monocular glasses. The power consumption of the driver IC is around 250mW for the driver IC comparing to the normally 5W power of FPGAs. Also, the frame rate could be from 60 to 120 Hz. A simple Fourier holography optical system is used to demonstrate the holographic display, with a lens tear apart from a smart glass on the market. The 3D holographic is displayed in the lens.