When you look at a finished waveguide, you see the result of countless decisions. Behind those decisions are specialized software tools and expert engineers who translate data into the high-performing waveguides that power the AR glasses experience.
The Software Behind the Hardware
Although our teams create physical waveguides, the use of software is crucial to bringing those designs to life. Each specialized application provides information that helps guide the next stage of development.
Exploring Design Options
Every waveguide begins with a set of requirements, including partner specifications and performance targets. Our engineers enter these parameters into specialized software to explore different configurations that could meet those needs.
The software applications help our teams narrow down possibilities and identify promising starting points for development. By considering these factors early, our engineers can focus early development efforts on designs that have the potential to meet partner requirements, quality standards, and manufacturability constraints.
Simulating Performance
Before a waveguide is fabricated, our engineers need to understand how different design choices might affect its optical performance. To explore these questions, we've developed custom software tailored to the challenges of waveguide engineering, including our own in-house raytracer.
By simulating how light travels through the optical system, the raytracer helps us understand how design changes could affect the light reaching the wearer’s eye. This enables us to investigate possible performance tradeoffs, compare approaches, and refine prospective designs before committing to physical prototypes.
Metrology
Our metrology software helps engineers analyze a waveguide’s physical characteristics in detail. Combined with specialized metrology tools, our teams can compare measurements against the intended design. This allows them to identify small variations and better assess how closely the finished waveguide matches expectations.
Measurements from fabricated waveguides also provide valuable feedback for future development. By comparing physical results with simulated expectations, our engineers can better understand how design decisions translate into finished components. These findings help inform subsequent simulations, guide design refinements, and identify opportunities to improve performance.
Enabling Better Waveguides
These software capabilities allow our teams to identify potential improvements before advancing a waveguide design to fabrication, reducing unnecessary design iterations and increasing the likelihood of success.
During production, our specialized software helps us translate design specifications into clear instructions for our custom equipment, helping our teams carry out complex fabrication steps with greater precision and repeatability.
Why Software Matters
The value of our software extends far beyond the individual tasks they perform.
Developing our own software gives us the flexibility to address specific engineering challenges. Additionally, our teams can work more efficiently, make informed decisions, and improve how designs move toward production by drawing on our optical design and manufacturing experience.
Faster Iteration
Our engineers can explore different approaches, test adjustments, and identify tradeoffs digitally before committing to physical prototypes. This helps reduce unnecessary fabrication cycles, which can save time, lower costs, and cut down on material waste.
Greater Consistency and Repeatability
By helping our teams understand how design variations and fabrication tolerances affect performance, these software tools provide valuable information that can guide refinement and improve confidence in our finished waveguides.
Closer Collaboration Across Teams
One of our biggest strengths is how our teams work together. Design, simulation, and metrology departments share their findings to inform one another’s work. Measurements from fabricated waveguides can help improve future models, while simulation results can guide what engineers examine during testing.
The Software You Don’t See
Software is essential to developing high-performance waveguides. Throughout design, testing, and fabrication, specialized applications help our highly collaborative teams analyze complex, nanoscale data and make precise adjustments to improve future designs.
Discover why high-performing waveguides matter for consumer AR.