Integrated visible light phased array system for autostereoscopic image projection

Abstract

We demonstrate a chip-scale autostereoscopic image projection system that utilizes a system of multiple integrated visible light optical phased arrays to reconstruct virtual light fields. Each phased array in this system serves as a micro-projector that illuminates the desired virtual object from a different angle. This recreates the virtual object in space with continuous parallax observable by the human visual system. In this work, a static virtual image with horizontal parallax and a viewing angle of 5° was generated with an array of 16 integrated silicon nitride phased arrays with a 635 nm operating wavelength. Each phased array is comprised of 32×32 optical antennas with passively encoded relative phases. The presented device demonstrates the promise of integrated visible light phased array platforms for implementing projection-based autostereoscopic displays in compact chip-scale platforms suitable for mobile devices.