Backlight and display
AssigneeSharp Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsJames Rowland SUCKLING, Tong Zhang, David James Montgomery, Ioannis Papakonstantinou
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Abstract
A backlight is provided for illuminating an at least partially transmissive display. The backlight includes a light source. A light guide receives the light from an edge surface and guides the light by total internal reflection. Groove structures which are located on at least one of the major surfaces of the light guide permit redistribution of light around obstacles that may be present within the light guide structure, thereby maintaining brightness uniformity of the backlight or illumination panel.
Claims24
A light guide for use in distributing light received from a light source, comprising:
- a plate-like substrate through which light may travel, the substrate having a top major surface, a bottom major surface and a light input face;
- wherein the substrate includes at least one region where light received at the light input face cannot reach by direct optical path through the substrate to the at least one region;
- and
- the substrate further includes a plurality of grooves on at least one of the top major surface and the bottom major surface, the plurality of grooves being aligned in a direction which is parallel to a direction of the light input at the light input face, and the plurality of grooves including grooves having a direction which varies non-linearly so as to direct light from the light input face toward the at least one region.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.