Scanning Laser Beam Displays based on a 2-D MEMS

The combination of laser light sources and MEMS technology enables a range of display systems such as ultra small projectors for mobile devices, head-up displays for vehicles, wearable near-eye displays and projection systems for 3D imaging. Images are created by scanning red, green and blue lasers horizontally and vertically with a single two-dimensional MEMS. Due to the excellent beam quality of laser beams, the optical designs are efficient and compact. In addition, the laser illumination enables saturated display colors that are desirable for augmented reality applications where a virtual image is used. With this technology, the smallest projector engine for high volume manufacturing to date has been developed. This projector module has a height of 7 mm and a volume of 5 cc. The resolution of this projector is WVGA. No additional projection optics is required, resulting in an infinite focus depth. Unlike with micro-display projection displays, an increase in resolution will not lead to an increase in size or a decrease in efficiency. Therefore future projectors can be developed that combine a higher resolution in an even smaller and thinner form factor with increased efficiencies that will lead to lower power consumption.