Hybrid Meta-Optics Enabled Compact Augmented Reality Display with Computational Image Reinforcement
Qikai Chen, Jiacheng Zhou, Sijie Pian, Jingang Xu, Xingyi Li, Bihua Li, Chentao Lu, Zhuning Wang, Qi Jiang, Shanhe Qin, Hantao Zhan, Benhao Zhang, Xu Liu, Kaiwei Wang, Yaoguang Ma
Abstract
Design challenges in reducing the size, weight, and off-axis aberrations of projection lenses often pose obstacles to the miniaturization of augmented reality (AR) devices like glasses. Here, we present a meta/refractive hybrid lenses (MRL)-based AR projection display illuminated with a MicroLED. The compact system features commercial ability with an entrance pupil diameter of 3.2 mm and a total track length (TTL) less than 7.7 mm, achieving superior resolution and minimal off-axis aberrations with distortion < 2% across a 30° field of view (FoV). The AR glass result also incorporates a hardware-inspired correction neural network with an apparent point-spread-function (PSF) feature. A predeconvolution from light source further corrects the residual system aberration, reinforcing AR image quality. Experiments with this computational enhancement method demonstrate a promoted similarity to the ground truth, validating its reliability and feasibility in increasing the yield rate of compact AR devices.