Optical module adjustment method and examination method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2025035508-A1
Application number	US-202418917559-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 16, 2024
Priority date	Apr 28, 2022
Publication date	Jan 30, 2025
Grant date	—

Abstract

At least three light fluxes of the test pattern projected from optical module 1 are acquired by wavefront sensor 9 , the parallelism of the respective light fluxes is calculated, and the orientation of display panel 5 of the optical module is adjusted so that the parallelism of each light flux coincides.

First claim

1 . An examination method of an optical module, the optical module including a display panel that displays a video and a projection lens that projects the video to be displayed on the display panel, the method sequentially including:
a test pattern display step of displaying, on the display panel, a test pattern including at least three or more dot-shaped light-on portions; a test pattern receiving step of receiving, by a light receiving unit of a wavefront sensor, the test pattern including each light flux of the dot-shaped light-on portions projected from the projection lens; a phase distribution calculation step of calculating, by a controller, a phase distribution of a wavefront of the test pattern received by the wavefront sensor; a phase distribution cutting-out step of cutting out, by the controller, a region of each light flux of the dot-shaped light-on portions of the test pattern from the phase distribution of the wavefront; a parallelism calculation step of calculating, by the controller, parallelism of light in the region of each light flux of the dot-shaped light-on portions cut out in the phase distribution cutting-out step; and an inclination determination step of determining, by the controller, presence or absence of inclination of the display panel with respect to the projection lens from the parallelism of light in the region of each light flux.

2 . The examination method of the optical module according to claim 1 , wherein
the at least three or more dot-shaped light-on portions comprises four dot-shaped light-on portions, the display step displays the test pattern including the four dot-shaped light-on portions, and arranges the dot-shaped light-on portions at positions symmetrical with respect to two axes orthogonal to each other on the display panel with a position where an optical axis of the projection lens passes through the display panel as an origin, and the inclination determination step determines, by the controller, that there is an inclination of the display panel with respect to the projection lens when there is a difference in the parallelism among the respective light fluxes of the two dot-shaped light-on portions positioned symmetrically with respect to two axes orthogonal to each other on the display panel with the position where the optical axis of the projection lens passes through the display panel as an origin.

3 . The examination method of the optical module according to claim 1 , wherein
the at least three or more dot-shaped light-on portions comprises three dot-shaped light-on portions, the display step displays the test pattern including the three dot-shaped light-on portions, and arranges the three dot-shaped light-on portions at positions equidistant from a position where an optical axis of the projection lens passes through the display panel, and the inclination determination step determines, by the controller, that there is an inclination of the display panel with respect to the projection lens when there is a difference in the parallelism among the light fluxes of the three dot-shaped light-on portions at positions equidistant from the position where the optical axis of the projection lens passes through the display panel.

4 . The examination method of the optical module according to claim 2 , wherein the light receiving unit of the wavefront sensor has a size of (2×L×tan θ+D) or more,
where θ is an angle of view of projection light of the optical module,
D is an effective diameter of the projection lens, and
L is a distance between the optical module and the wavefront sensor.

5 . The examination method of the optical module according to claim 2 , wherein the parallelism calculation step calculates, by the controller, the parallelism from defocus aberration and astigmatism.

6 . The examination method of the optical module according to claim 2 , wherein the phase distribution cutting-out step forms the region of each light flux of the dot-shaped light-on portions into an elliptical shape, and calculates, by the controller, the parallelism using an elliptical Zernike polynomial.

7 . An optical module adjustment method, comprising an inclination adjusting step of performing the examination method of the optical module according to claim 1 , and when the inclination determination step determines, by the controller, that there is an inclination of the display panel, performing adjustment of the inclination of the display panel with respect to the projection lens by a positioning mechanism that adjusts the inclination of the display panel under the control of the controller such that parallelism of light in the region of each light flux of the dot-shaped light-on portions coincides.

8 . The optical module adjustment method according to claim 7 , further comprising, after the inclination determination step, an optical axis direction adjusting step of moving the display panel in an optical axis direction of the projection lens and adjusting the display panel by adjusting a position of the display panel by the positioning mechanism under the control of the controller such that parallelism of light in the region of each light flux of the dot-shaped light-on portions matches with a design value of parallelism of the optical module.

Assignees

• Panasonic Ip Man Co Ltd

Inventors

• Yokoyama Jun
• YONEMURA Tatsuya
• Urashima Takashi
• Takechi Yohei
• Tachika Hideyuki

Classifications

• G01M11/0264

  by using targets or reference patterns · CPC title

• G01M11/02

  Testing optical properties · CPC title

• G01M11/0221 Primary

  by determining the optical axis or position of lenses · CPC title

• G01M11/00

  Testing of optical apparatus; Testing structures by optical methods not otherwise provided for · CPC title

• G01M11/0242 Primary

  by measuring geometrical properties or aberrations · CPC title