Analysis and optimization of field curvature and pupil swim for near-eye display systems

To achieve better immersive effects and a comfortable wearing experience, current near-eye display systems are designed with large fields of view and large exit pupils as goals. However, optical aberrations such as field curvature and pupil swim are inevitable in these systems. There is currently a lack of comprehensive analysis methods and optimization techniques for field curvature and pupil swim in these systems. This paper employs forward ray tracing and simulates the human eye using ideal lenses to converge light onto the image plane. By calculating the positions of minimum spot size for different fields of view, the location of the virtual image plane is determined, and a three-dimensional model of the virtual image plane for the system is constructed. Through an iterative approach, it controls the positions of virtual image points for different fields of view to optimize the system's field curvature. Additionally, pupil swim causes image fluctuations when the eye moves, significantly affecting visual experience. This paper proposes a quantification method for pupil swim and analyzes its correlation with field curvature. Finally, by designing different near-eye display systems, the effectiveness of the analysis methods is demonstrated.