Inprentus introduces unique blazed grating strategy for Augmented Reality waveguides at SPIE 2023 AR|VR|MR conference

The Inprentus team highlighted their mechanical ruling technique to achieve elusive blazed groove shapes for AR waveguides at SPIE AR|VR|MR 2023 conference, held in San Francisco’s Moscone Center from 30th January-1st February.

Revolutionary Blazed Master Waveguide Prototype for AR Applications by Inprentus

Inprentus kick-started the week with Dr. Peter Abbamonte, founder and CSO, presenting a talk titled Mechanically Ruled, Blazed Gratings for AR Waveguides. Using this foundational technique, Inprentus creates triangulated grooves by deforming metallic surfaces with a diamond stylus. He explained that “augmented reality total internal reflection (TIR) waveguides work by using a surface diffraction grating to couple light in and out of the device. The traditional way to tune the spectral response of a grating is by blazing it. However, blazed facets are difficult to fabricate using e-beam lithography techniques, particularly in the sub-wavelength regime (lambda ~500 nm and below)“. The talk was enthusiastically received by members from the AR industry who have relied on alternate lithography techniques and groove shapes until now. He then presented Inprentus’ ground-breaking capabilities in ruling gratings for the AR market in the line density range of 3000-4000 lpmm.

The Inprentus team included Jonathan Manton (CTO), Marty Dugan (VP of Business Development), Dr. Subha Kumar (Product Lead Scientist), and Dr. Sam Gleason (Senior Scientist). Jonathan presented the world’s first mechanically ruled master waveguide mold, consisting of input, turn, and output grating structures, for use in AR headset eyepieces. Jonathan explained that “Inprentus’ waveguide master is ruled on a gold 6-inch wafer and coated with a thin layer of Tantalum to provide an oxide layer to facilitate downstream imprinting processes.”

Subha, Marty, and Jonathan (left to right) at the Inprentus booth at SPIE 2023 AR|VR|XR Conference

The team received feedback that there is an industry-wide gap between the promise of sleek smart glass solutions and current AR glasses. Power-tethering requirements increase bulk, and an important social factor of seeing the wearer’s eyes is currently obscured by the “eye-glow” phenomenon. Inprentus’ ability to make asymmetric, highly tunable blazed structures enable high efficiency and reduced eye-glow. In addition, gratings produced by Inprentus have no write-field limitation and excellent long-range coherence, eliminating the “screen-door effect” common in lithographically made gratings.

Dr. Subha Kumar connected with suppliers on the exhibition floor and observed that ”the conference was extremely useful in providing the pulse on current AR technologies, especially the overview course by Bernard Kress. A variety of industries, domestic and international, require streamlined solutions in place of the current complex mastering and imprinting process. In response, Inprentus continues our commitment to developing partnerships with leading Nanoimprint Lithography (NIL) companies to supply transparent lenses directly to AR customers.”

Inprentus Inc.
Inprentus designs, manufactures, and sells X-ray and EUV diffraction gratings for synchrotron and free electron laser facilities as well as grating masters for augmented reality optics and spectroscopy applications. The company was founded in 2012 to commercialize innovative, nano-scale scribing technology. This technology is a general-purpose approach to high-precision patterning of surfaces and is particularly suited to the manufacture of diffractive optics in which features must be shaped with 0.1-degree angular precision and positioned with nanometer precision over distances of tens of centimeters.

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Inprentus Enters the Augmented Reality Market Supplying Blazed Grating Masters for Grating-Coupled Waveguides in AR Glasses

Inprentus now offers manufacturing and design services for a core component in the augmented reality optics market. The company’s blazed diffractive waveguide masters can be used for rapid prototyping and mass production of AR headset eyepieces. High-efficiency blazed waveguides can lower power consumption in headset/glasses, offering improved performance and higher manufacturing yield.

Champaign, Illinois, USA, January 25th, 2023: Inprentus, a supplier of custom diffractive optics to a variety of industries, employs a unique and innovative nanoscale contact mode lithography technique that combines ultrahigh precision mechanical ruling of metallic surfaces and a variety of proprietary control software, sensor technology and materials science techniques. This method is designed to produce blazed diffractive patterns on optical surfaces for the purpose of controlling light. The company’s nanoscale contact mode lithography process is ideal for manufacturing master diffractive optics used for prototyping as well as high-volume replication.

Inprentus blazed patterns can include a wide range of blaze angles, variable line spacing for focusing and image correction. Multiple blazed patterns (gratings) can be precisely oriented on a surface to create an AR eyepiece. These structures will be used in the next generation of augmented reality glasses by projecting images from outside of the lens, through the waveguide, and then to the eye without the use of bulky “bird bath” optics or non-blazed waveguide patterns, both of which have drawbacks, including low efficiency and higher product manufacturing costs. The Inprentus nanoscale contact mode lithography technique allows multiple gratings, such as input, expander, and output patterns, to be manufactured using the same setup.

Peter Abbamonte, Inprentus’ Chief Science Officer, noted “The company’s experience over the past ten years, first as a provider of high value, x-ray diffraction gratings for materials research facilities around the world, then as a producer of gratings for precision spectroscopy and semiconductor lithography, has given us the skills we need to meet the stringent requirements of the AR market.”

A key advantage of mechanical lithography is that it can fabricate blazed, sub-wavelength patterns with the asymmetry needed to couple light into a waveguide with high efficiency. Controlling the facet angles to 0.1 deg accuracy allows exquisite spectral tuning with excellent wavefront flatness (<60 nm), without stitching errors that plague other lithography techniques. Blazed patterns are an established platform for high-volume replication with high fidelity. Ruling two-dimensional gratings, also known as crossed gratings, is also possible by extending current capabilities.

Inprentus is now one of the leading manufacturers of custom blazed diffraction gratings worldwide, having delivered over 50 unique projects for visible light, extreme ultraviolet, and x-ray wavelength applications. Company technology achievements include delivering the lowest blaze angle ever achieved in a mechanically ruled grating, 0.1 deg, in an optic with a length of 480 mm. The company offers established optics engineering services including complete instrument designs, RCWA and FDTD simulations, design-for-manufacturing services, and a full suite of metrology techniques.

Inprentus Inc.

Inprentus designs, manufactures, and sells X-ray and EUV diffraction gratings for synchrotron and free electron laser facilities as well as diffraction grating masters for augmented reality optics and spectroscopy applications. The company was founded in 2012 to commercialize an innovative, nano-scale scribing technology. This technology is a general-purpose approach to high-precision patterning of surfaces and is particularly suited to the manufacture of diffractive optics in which features must be shaped with 0.1-degree angular precision and positioned with nanometer precision over distances of tens of centimeters.

Inprentus has been Awarded a Contract to Supply High-Precision Diffraction Gratings to the Semiconductor Industry for Metrology Applications

Inprentus will supply EUV Tech Inc. with custom designed blazed diffraction gratings for semiconductor metrology.

Champaign, Illinois, USA, October 4th, 2022: A contract has been awarded to Inprentus to supply custom manufactured diffraction gratings. These unique diffraction gratings will be use as optical components for semiconductor EUV metrology instrumentation manufactured by EUV Tech Inc., located in Martinez California.

Inprentus and EUV Tech worked together to optimize the design of the optical components to maximize the efficiency and optical characteristics for the semiconductor metrology application.

Ron van Os, Inprentus’ CEO, noted “This second design and manufacturing opportunity with EUV Tech is evidence that Inprentus is delivering significant value to our customers by offering design optimization services along with our proven manufacturing expertise. Continued close customer engagement will continue to be a key strategy in reaching our goals.”

“Working with the team at Inprentus has allowed EUV Tech to significantly reduce our time to market in the development of a unique new EUV mask phase measurement tool while also providing state-of-the-art optical components” said Patrick Naulleau, EUV Tech’s CEO.

Inprentus Inc.

Inprentus designs, manufactures, and sells X-ray and EUV diffraction gratings for synchrotron and free electron laser facilities as well as diffraction grating masters for augmented reality optics and spectroscopy applications. The company was founded in 2012 to commercialize an innovative, nano-scale scribing technology. This technology is a general-purpose approach to high-precision patterning of surfaces and is particularly suited to the manufacture of diffractive optics in which features must be shaped with 0.1-degree angular precision and positioned with nanometer precision over distances of tens of centimeters.