AR Ambient Dimming films and other flexible LC Optics for AR/VR

Liquid Crystal Optics technologies are key to improving the optical performance of AR/VR headsets, providing a wide variety of functions that improve viewer comfort and/or immersion, such as tunable lenses, and ambient dimming. For example, in see-through AR, Liquid-Crystal based ambient dimming can be employed to ensure sufficient contrast of projected virtual images in bright environments, particularly when the projected objects need to appear dark. In general, and depending on the selection of LC material and architecture, liquid crystal cells can steer, modulate and even focus light.

Liquid crystal cells have been made on glass for years, but for many applications, glass is not desirable because of its weight, thickness, fragility, or lack of conformability. Thinner and lighter LC solutions are needed, particularly in applications such as varifocal lenses and ambient dimming for AR/VR.

With a focus on AR ambient dimming, we will describe the flexible LC optics platform technology we have developed, its attributes and applications, and how this compares to other approaches. Based on ultra-thin TAC (Tri Acetyl Cellulose), with and without OTFT functionality, these active optical films are extremely thin and light and can be 3D (biaxially) formed or stacked together to create powerful and combined functions.