Ultra-compact, wide field of view virtual image display optical system

Abstract

Abstract A virtual image display (VID) optical system that is very compact and has a wide field of view. The present optical system has good image quality, has simple optics, is very compact, provides wide field coverage, and has very large field overlaying. The system comprises a combiner and a catadioptric relay group disposed along an optical path between a cathode ray tube and an operator. The virtual image display system of the present invention is adapted to enlarge an image of the cathode ray tube viewed by the operator. The catadioptric relay group is typically comprised of a concave mirror and one refractive sub-group with at least one lens, and provides excellent image quality over a very wide field of view. The concave mirror contributes positive optical power to the system, thus providing for a compact optical system. The concave mirror may be tilted and/or decentered to balance the asymmetric aberrations generated by the combiner. The concave mirror may also have an axially symmetric or generalized surface shape to provide for aberration balance. The concave mirror and combiner cooperate to balance the field curvature introduced by a refractive shape of the relay group. The refractive group of the relay may also be tilted and/or decentered to reduce residual asymmetric aberration.

Inventors

• 👤 Chungte W. Chen
• 👤 Ronald G. Hegg

Bibliographic Details