Development of a Flyable Acousto-Optic Laser Beam Deflection System for a Head Up Display of the Future.
Abstract:
The report describes a laser display which is to be used in a Head-Up Display of the future. The uniqueness of the display is that it uses acousto-optic components for the modulation and deflection of the laser beam. As a result, there are no moving parts, which increases the reliability and life expectancy of the equipment. The display uses red light from a He-Ne laser and projects it on a 4 x 4 inch screen with a resolution of 500 x 500 spots Rayleigh criteria. The system was designed for stroke writing but was demonstrated with lissajous writing. The acousto-optic deflectors employed special features. Two deflectors were used for each axis of scan to eliminate spot focusing and defocusing during scanning. Each deflector used acoustic beam steering to maximize deflection efficiency, maintain deflection uniformity over the deflection range and minimize drive power. Author