Mark A. Thomas

A Holographic Head-Up Display For Automotive Applications

A high performance multiple color automotive head-up display system using a holographic element embedded within a standard automotive windshield is described. The system uses an optical system designed to compensate the aspheric curvature characteristics of the windshield and to project the display ahead of the vehicle. The image source is a high contrast transmissive liquid crystal display illuminated with a high intensity white light source. The display is clearly visible against all ambient light conditions tested. The system has been designed for volume production.

Holographic head-up display combiners with optimal photometric efficiency and uniformity

Head-Up Displays (HUDs) utilizing holographic combiner elements can suffer from poor display brightness uniformity across the head motion volume or field of view. The brightness non-uniformity is due to angle differences between the construction and the enduse orreconstruction geometries. This problem is especially acute when holographic combinerelements are positioned relatively close to the pilots design eye location, when large head motion volumes are desired, and when narrow-band phosphors (e.g. P-53) are used. This paper presents a hologram design approach that maximizes the HUD combiner phosphor reflectivity, the transmissivity through the combiners, and the display brightness uniformity. This technique can be applied to HUDs using dual combiners or wide field-of-view combiners.