NIL Technology (NILT) is an optical solutions company designing, developing, and manufacturing flat optical elements and components with nanoscale features such as diffractive optical elements (DOEs) and meta optical elements (MOEs). NILT’s MOE lenses have recently demonstrated a groundbreaking 94% absolute efficiency at 940 nm. This major milestone, in combination with other efforts such as the subsequent module integration and enabling of mass production of MOE elements, are among the key development areas for successful adoption of MOE lenses in various markets, ranging from consumer to automotive and applications such as sensing and machine vision systems. Here, we report our recent achievements with a camera module based on an MOE lens. We have successfully designed and manufactured camera modules using a single MOE lens showing excellent performance compared to refractive lens counterparts. The design has a low f-number and extremely high relative illumination. Prototypes are prepared using e-beam lithography, whereas MOE lenses in mass production are manufactured using nanoimprint lithography. The characterization of the MOE lenses reveals full agreement with the simulated nominal design. Image artifacts can appear due to higher orders of diffraction if the MOE lenses are not designed and manufactured properly. To illustrate the promise for volume production, a tolerance analysis has been performed, where the system tolerance analysis shows yield versus performance. At the module level, a straylight study, including ghost image and finally, thermal stability has been analyzed. The tolerance and thermal analysis are not presented in this manuscript. These results show the advantages of using 'NILT's high-efficiency meta optical elements compared to traditional optical systems.
The optical efficiency of metalenses is extremely important for practical applications. With only limited efficiency, useful light is lost. This can for example result in reduced sensitivity. Even worse, the light, will appear as straylight that can result in ghost images, reduced resolution, reduced contrast etc. depending on the specific application.
Here, metalenses optimized for a wavelength of 940 nm are experimentally demonstrated with an absolute focusing efficiency of up to 94% measured as the optical power transmitted to the focal spot divided by the power incident on the lens element.
The function of the highly efficient metalenses is demonstrated in a camera module. The resulting images are sharp, crisp and artefact free.
To meet the demand for high quality augmented reality displays with larger field of view, large eye box and better image quality, large area diffraction gratings are needed. Across the industry different types of surface relief gratings for in-coupling and out-coupling are used in the waveguide designs to achieve the optimum performance of the waveguide. Typical gratings are slanted, blazed, binary and multi-level gratings. NIL Technology offers solutions for all of the above-mentioned types of gratings meeting the demand for high quality and size of in particular the output gratings from the market.
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