HUD Research: AR-HUD staged a "technological competition", who will win the mass production crown?

At present, domestic mass-produced AR-HUDs basically use free-form surface mirror systems. Limited by the optical principles of off-axis mirror groups, there has always been a difficult balance between FOV, VID and system volume. However, the introduction of optical waveguide technology has broken this inherent contradiction and can obtain large FOV and VID in a limited volume.

AR optical waveguide technology is divided into geometric optical waveguides and diffractive optical waveguides, of which diffractive optical waveguides are further divided into surface relief grating waveguides and volume holographic grating waveguides. Currently, volume holographic grating waveguide HOE is a generally promising technology direction in the industry. The leader of this technology is DigiLens, which has received multiple rounds of investment from mainland China.

Domestic optical waveguide companies such as Sanji Optoelectronics, Sudaweige, Zhige Technology, Longjing Optoelectronics, and Lingxi Micro-Light have also received widespread attention. In September 2022, Huayang Multimedia and Longjing Optoelectronics established a strategic partnership to jointly promote the in-depth integration of optical waveguide technology and the AR-HUD market.

In addition, WayRay has created an AR-HUD product (Deep Reality Display®) based on DLP laser projection + HOE holographic film. Compared with traditional AR-HUD, the volume can be smaller and the screen size FOV can be larger. In May 2023, WayRay stated that it had successfully applied holographic technology to the Tesla Model 3 model and would first enter Switzerland and subsequently be sold in the United States.

Source: WayRay

与光波导、HOE（静态全息）不同，计算全息CGH技术（动态全息）不需要传统光学结构的参与，利用计算机和算法生成全息图像，能在任意焦平面成像，且在封装尺寸上具有显著优势。

Based on this, many OEMs and suppliers have deployed, such as Volkswagen investing in SeeReal, Panasonic and Mobis investing in Envisics, and Denso investing in CY Vision. Domestically, Longjing Optoelectronics and Ruiweishi are also promoting the development of CGH computational holographic AR-HUD technology.

In March 2023, Envisics received US$50 million in Series C financing from Hyundai Mobis, Jaguar Land Rover's venture capital institutions InMotion Ventures and Stellantis. The 2024 Cadillac model Lyriq will integrate Envisics’ second-generation AR-HUD (bifocal surface, maximum brightness up to 25,000 cd/m²).