Stray light analysis and design optimization of geometrical waveguide

Abstract Waveguide technology has great prospects of development in optical see-through near-eye displays with larger field of view, lower thickness and lighter weight than other conventional optical technologies. However, the stray light is usually inevitable in current optical design and manufacturing, causing a poor imaging quality. In this paper, the principle and structures of stray light generation are analyzed, and the causes are discussed by non-sequential ray-tracing with mass precision calculation. From the ray-tracing, the suppression of stray light by optimizing design and manufacturing are achieved. A 2 mm-thickness geometrical waveguide with partially reflective mirror array is designed. The field of view of the optimized geometrical waveguide reaches 47° with 10 mm at exit pupil diameter and 20 mm at eye relief.