Parallel Reconfigured Line Image Scanning Miniature Super-High-Resolution Light Engine

To address the U.S. Air Force need for an innovative core image source technology for high performance helmet mounted displays, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposed to develop a novel full color super high resolution high luminance miniature head mounted display (HMD) based on line image scanning of laser illumination, a high speed liquid-crystal-on-silicon (LCOS) display, holographic optics, and a simple one-dimensional scanner. The proposed approach offers superior resolution (5k x 4k pixels) from a relatively low resolution LCOS, taking advantage of its high refresh speed and only using relatively slow line image scanning. The proposed technology is made commercially attractive by its unique integration of available commercial components and low cost fabrication techniques. The effort will focus on developing a compact Parallel Reconfigured Line Image Scanning Miniature (PRISM) display demonstration unit in which commercially available LCOS microdisplays will be integrated with compact laser diodes and POC's 2D-image-to-1D-line-image transforming optical element to generate color sequential full resolution images for current U.S. Air Force HMDs. In Phase I POC will demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach through computer design, performance analysis, and an experimental proof-of-concept demonstration, so that in Phase II we can build a brassboard prototype HMD miniature display.