FlexEnable’s flexible active optics AR/VR evaluation kits

The kits include ambient dimming and tunable lens film modules made using FlexEnable’s flexible liquid crystal (LC) technology. These uniquely thin and light active optics bring game-changing optical performance to AR/VR and allow significantly smaller, lighter and curved devices — key factors in achieving the visual and physical comfort necessary for all-day wearability and sustained adoption. The evaluation kits are initially available to selected strategic partners who wish to evaluate FlexEnable’s breakthrough technology for integration into new products.

Chuck Milligan, CEO of FlexEnable, said: “Advancements in AR/VR technologies must simultaneously increase visual comfort and immersion, whilst allowing the devices to become lighter and smaller. Our uniquely thin and lightweight optical modules can modulate and focus light, ensuring virtual objects in AR appear solid and with high contrast and allowing users to comfortably focus on virtual objects at different distances.

For strategic OEM/brand partners we offer customisable solutions that can be integrated into new products, along with a rapid route to production scale-up through our existing manufacturing partners.”

The ambient dimmer module features a 50mm diameter aperture that switches in ~10 milliseconds, with a thickness of just 200 microns and a cell mass of less than one gram. It provides global dimming of unpolarised light for AR devices, and when integrated with FlexEnable’s OTFT technology enables pixel-level dimming (spatial dimming). This allows virtual objects to be clearly visible and appear solid even as external lighting conditions change.

The tuneable lens module has a 30mm diameter with a continuously tuneable lens power of 0 to 1 dioptre, a cell thickness of 100-200 microns, and a mass of a fraction of a gram. It can actively adjust focus of visible light, bringing perceived and actual image depth together consistently, by compensating for focal differences between the virtual and the real. FlexEnable’s liquid crystal lenses can be stacked to increase focal power or combined with other flexible LC optical functions to provide additional features such as a dimmable lens.

The active optical films can also be biaxially curved to follow the 3D contours of existing surfaces such as headset visors and fixed lenses, further reducing device volume and weight.

FlexEnable will be exhibiting at SPIE AR VR MR in San Francisco on 30-31 January 2024. The company will be showcasing its technology at booth 6401.