Polarizing beam splitter plates providing high resolution images and systems utilizing such polarizing beam splitter plates

A polarizing beam splitter plate comprising:

• a first substrate;
• a second substrate;
• a multilayer optical film reflective polarizer disposed between and adhered to the first and second substrates;
• a first outermost major surface;
• and
• an opposing second outermost major surface making an angle of less than about 20 degrees with the first outermost major surface, wherein the polarizing beam splitter plate is adapted to reflect imaged light towards a viewer or screen, the reflected imaged light having an effective pixel resolution of less than 12 microns.

A projection subsystem, comprising:

• a light source;
• a first imager imaging light received from the light source;
• and
• a polarizing beam splitter plate receiving the imaged light from the first imager and comprising:
• a multilayer optical film reflective polarizer;
• a first outermost major surface;
• and
• an opposing second outermost major surface making an angle of less than about 20 degrees with the first outermost major surface;
• wherein the polarizing beam splitter plate reflects the received imaged light towards an image plane with an effective pixel resolution of less than 12 microns.

A polarization subsystem comprising:

• a first imager;
• and
• a polarizing beam splitter plate receiving imaged light from the imager and comprising:
• a multilayer optical film reflective polarizer;
• a first outermost major surface;
• and
• an opposing second outermost major surface making an angle of less than about 20 degrees with the first outermost major surface;
• wherein the polarizing beam splitter plate reflects the received imaged light towards a viewer or screen, and wherein the multilayer optical film reflective polarizer has a surface roughness Ra of less than 45 nm or a surface roughness Rq of less than 80 nm.

A method of producing a flat film, comprising:

• providing a multilayer optical film;
• providing a temporary flat substrate;
• releasably attaching a first surface of the multilayer optical film to the temporary flat substrate;
• providing a permanent substrate, the permanent substrate comprising a first outermost major surface and an opposing second outermost major surface making an angle of less than about 20 degrees with the first outermost major surface;
• attaching a second surface of the multilayer optical film to the permanent substrate;
• and
• removing the multilayer optical film from the temporary flat substrate.

A method of creating an optically flat polarizing beam splitter plate, comprising:

• providing a multilayer optical film reflective polarizer;
• applying a layer of pressure sensitive adhesive to a first surface of the multilayer optical film;
• applying a first substrate against the pressure sensitive adhesive layer on the side opposite the multilayer optical film, the first substrate comprising a first outermost major surface and an opposing second outermost major surface making an angle of less than about 20 degrees with the first outermost major surface;
• and
• applying vacuum to the pressure sensitive adhesive, the multilayer optical film, and the first substrate.