Kopin Corporation Announces All-Plastic Pancake® Optics with Excellent Performance
June 15 2021 - 8:30AM
Business Wire
A Major Optics Breakthrough – Enables
Super-Compact, Lightweight, Stylish VR Glasses
Kopin® Corporation (NASDAQ: KOPN), a leading developer and
provider of high-resolution microdisplays and display subassemblies
for defense, enterprise, consumer and medical products, announced
today it has succeeded in developing all-plastic Pancake® optics
with breakthrough performance for virtual reality (VR), augmented
reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) applications. This is a major
advance and believed to be the first all-plastic Pancake optics in
the world with excellent performance. Kopin has applied for three
patents on the design, manufacturing processes and system
utilization of all plastic Pancake optics, and expects additional
filings to follow.
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Pancake optics, compared to other optics designs, can provide a
far superior magnified image quality in a much thinner form factor,
especially for products with field of views (FOV) ranging from 50
degrees to 100 degrees. However, previous Pancake optics needed at
least one spherical glass lens to avoid image artifacts caused by
birefringence of the plastic material, but this glass lens added
both weight and cost to the lens system. Kopin’s new all-plastic
Pancake optics with all aspherical lenses (compared to previous
Pancake optics using spherical glass lens) substantially reduce the
weight and thickness while significantly improving the image
quality – all at a lower cost.
Pancake optics work by reflecting light back and forth within
the optical system. In order to reflect the light correctly and
avoid image artifacts, the polarization state of light must be
precisely controlled. Unfortunately, plastic materials usually have
large birefringence that disturbs the polarization state, and until
now all-plastic lenses have not been able to overcome the
disturbance of the polarization state.
Kopin’s all-plastic two-element Pancake optics have virtually no
birefringence. At the core of the technology is a patented
aspherical optical lens design that achieves great image
performance and processing methods to preserve the negligible
birefringence of a special plastic material with unique
characteristics. The result is a Pancake optics system with better
image quality, much smaller size, lighter weight and lower cost
than anything previously available. Kopin’s first all-plastic
Pancake optics (named P95) optimized for Kopin’s 1.3” 2.6K x 2.6K
organic light emitting diode (OLED) microdisplay (2560 x 2560
resolution) provides a 95° field of view. The center holds an
extremely sharp image with excellent modular transfer function.
This sharpness is maintained even out to the edge of the field of
view, a critical and difficult to achieve performance feature for
VR applications. At just 16mm thickness and only 15g per lens set,
the new Pancake optics are dramatically thinner and lighter than
the optics used in today’s VR headsets and provides exactly what
consumers have been asking for. Combined with Kopin’s 2.6K x 2.6K
high-brightness OLED microdisplay, the P95 pancake optics provide a
virtual image equivalent to a 250-inch diagonal display viewed at
10-foot distance with excellent image performance for VR
applications.
“This major breakthrough represents a foundational milestone for
the emerging VR markets. Bulky, heavy headsets have been a major
barrier to faster consumer adoption for many years. No more,” said
Dr. John C.C. Fan, CEO and founder of Kopin Corporation. “After
thorough review of the available optics designs, we believe
all-plastic Pancake optics are the best for VR applications that
require a very large field of view, excellent image performance,
and a super compact size. The challenge of finding a suitable
plastic material with the required optical properties has been
solved. We believe our Pancake optics are perfect for VR headsets.
Our first design, P95, is specifically optimized for use with our
2.6K x 2.6K OLED high-brightness microdisplays. This new technology
would be ideal for VR, but we believe this unique optics would also
be useful for MR and AR applications. With all-plastic Pancake
optics and duo-stack OLED microdisplays, the dream of stylish,
super lightweight (< 100 g), compact VR/MR/AR high performance
headset products is finally reachable. We plan on offering our new
optics as either a stand-alone component or in a module with our
OLED microdisplays. We are delighted that we already have the first
design-in partner for our P95 optics.”
About Kopin
Kopin Corporation is a leading developer and provider of
innovative display and optical technologies sold as critical
components and subassemblies for defense, industrial and consumer
products. Kopin's technology portfolio includes ultrasmall Active
Matrix Liquid Crystal displays (AMLCD), Liquid Crystal on Silicon
(LCOS) displays and Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) displays, a
variety of optics, and low-power ASICs. For more information on
Kopin, as well as on Pancake optics, please visit Kopin's website
at www.kopin.com.
Kopin and Pancake are trademarks of Kopin Corporation.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this press release may be considered
"forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of
the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), and
Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the
"Exchange Act"), which are subject to the safe harbor created by
such sections. Words such as "expects," "believes," "can," "will,"
"estimates," and variations of such words and similar expressions,
and the negatives thereof, are intended to identify such
forward-looking statements. We caution readers not to place undue
reliance on any such "forward-looking statements," which speak only
as of the date made, and advise readers that these forward-looking
statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve
certain risks, uncertainties, estimates, and assumptions by us that
are difficult to predict. These forward-looking statements may
include statements with respect to: our belief that our Pancake
optics are the first all-plastic Pancake optics in the world with
excellent performance; our expectation of filing additional
patents; our belief that consumers want thinner, and lighter than
the optics in today’s virtual reality (VR) headsets; our belief
that all-plastic Pancake optics are the best for VR applications
that require a very large field of view, excellent image
performance, and a super compact size; our belief that our Pancake
optics is perfect for VR headsets; our belief that these unique
optics will be useful for MR and AR applications; and our plan on
offering our new optics as either a stand-alone component or in a
module with our OLED microdisplays. Various factors, some of which
are beyond our control, could cause actual results to differ
materially from those expressed in, or implied by, such
forward-looking statements. All such forward-looking statements,
whether written or oral, and whether made by us or on our behalf,
are expressly qualified by these cautionary statements and any
other cautionary statements that may accompany the forward-looking
statements. In addition, we disclaim any obligation to update any
forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after
the date of this press release, except as may otherwise be required
by the federal securities laws. These forward-looking statements
are only predictions, subject to risks and uncertainties, and
actual results could differ materially from those discussed.
Important factors that could affect performance and cause results
to differ materially from management's expectations are described
in Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors; Part II, Item 7. Management's
Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of
Operations; and other parts of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for
the fiscal year ended December 26, 2020, or as updated from time to
time in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission
filings.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210615005440/en/
Kopin Richard Sneider, 508-870-5959 Treasurer and Chief
Financial Officer rsneider@kopin.com or Market Street Partners
Joann Horne, 415-445-3233 JHorne@marketstreetpartners.com
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