US 5,633,737 A · Projection-type color liquid crystal display having two micro-lens arrays · patentgrep

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Abstract

A liquid crystal display element, which is installed in a projection-type color liquid crystal display, is provided with the first glass substrate. The first glass substrate is provided with the first micro-lens array on its light-incident side and the second micro-lens array on its light-releasing side. The first micro-lens array converges light beams of respective primary colors onto the vicinity of the light-releasing position on the second micro-lens array. The second micro-lens array makes the incident light beams parallel to each other and releases them from the liquid crystal display element. Thus, even in the case of using a projection lens having a small diameter, it is possible to improve the efficiency of utilization of light. Moreover, this arrangement eliminates the necessity of having to employ a comparatively expensive projection lens with a large diameter, thereby reducing the costs of production.

Claims48

Dependent claims

A projection-type color liquid crystal display comprising:

a white-light source for emitting a white-light beam;
light-beam dividing means for dividing the white-light beam into light beams consisting of a plurality of color rays having respectively different wavelength ranges;
a liquid crystal display element including a face whereon pixels corresponding to the respective color rays are regularly disposed, said liquid crystal display element being arranged so that the incident color rays are modulated and transmitted through the pixels;
a first micro-lens array for converging the color rays of the light beams onto corresponding pixel apertures in said liquid crystal display element, each color ray being allocated with respect to each wavelength range;
and
a second micro-lens array for deflecting the light beams so that their respective principal rays are aligned in parallel with one another,
a focal distance of said first micro-lens array being designed so that focal points of the light beams that are released from said first micro-lens array are located in a vicinity of a light-releasing side of said second micro-lens array.

4 more elements

A projection-type color liquid crystal display comprising:

a white-light source for emitting a white-light beam;
light-beam dividing means for dividing the white-light beam into light beams consisting of a plurality of color rays having respectively different wavelength ranges;
a liquid crystal display element including a face wherein pixels corresponding to the respective color rays are regularly disposed, said liquid crystal display element being arranged so that the incident color rays are modulated and transmitted through the pixels;
a first micro-lens array for converging the color rays of the light beams onto corresponding pixel apertures in said liquid crystal display element, each color ray being allocated with respect to each wavelength range;
and
a second micro-lens array for deflecting the light beams so that their respective principal rays are aligned in parallel with one another,
said second micro-lens array being disposed between said first micro-lens array and the pixels in said liquid crystal display element in the light path of the color rays,
said light-beam dividing means divides the white-light beam into light beams consisting of color rays of the three primary colors,
said liquid crystal display element has sets of three pixels corresponding to the respective three primary colors of the color rays, each set being arranged so that the three pixels are allocated to apexes of a triangle in a predetermined order,
said first micro-lens array and said second microlens array respectively include a transparent substrate that transmits light and a plurality of rectangular micro-lenses that are disposed on the transparent substrate,
the plurality of micro-lenses are disposed in a brick-wall fashion, when seen from an optical-axis direction, each of the plurality of micro-lenses being in an operative relationship with a set of three pixels that are adjacent and aligned in a straight line.

8 more elements

A projection-type color liquid crystal display comprising:

a white-light source for emitting a white-light beam;
light-beam dividing means for dividing the white-light beam into light beams consisting of a plurality of color rays having respectively different wavelength ranges;
a liquid crystal display element including a face wherein pixels corresponding to the respective color rays are regularly disposed, said liquid crystal display element being arranged so that the incident color rays are modulated and transmitted through the pixels;
a first micro-lens array for converging the color rays of the light beams onto corresponding pixel apertures in said liquid crystal display element, each color ray being allocated with respect to each wavelength range;
and
a second micro-lens array for deflecting the light beams so that their respective principal rays are aligned in parallel with one another,
said second micro-lens array being disposed between said first micro-lens array and the pixels in said liquid crystal display element in the light path of the color rays,
said light-beam dividing means divides the white-light beam into light beams consisting of color rays of the three primary colors,
said liquid crystal display element has sets of three pixels corresponding to the respective three primary colors, each set being arranged so that the three pixels are allocated to apexes of a triangle in a predetermined order,
said first micro-lens array and said second microlens array respectively include a transparent substrate that transmits light and a plurality of hexagonal micro-lenses that are disposed on the transparent substrate,
the plurality of hexagonal micro-lenses are disposed in a honey-comb shape, when seen from an optical-axis direction, each of the plurality of hexagonal microlenses being in an operative relationship with a set of three pixels that are arranged adjacent to each other so that the three pixels are allocated to the apexes of a triangle.

8 more elements

A projection-type color liquid crystal display comprising:

a white-light source for emitting a white-light beam;
light-beam dividing means for dividing the white-light beam into light beams consisting of a plurality of color rays having respectively different wavelength ranges;
a liquid crystal display element including a face wherein pixels corresponding to the respective color rays are regularly disposed, said liquid crystal display element being arranged so that the incident color rays are modulated and transmitted through the pixels;
a first micro-lens array for converging the color rays of the light beams onto corresponding pixel apertures in said liquid crystal display element, each color ray being allocated with respect to each wavelength range;
and
a second micro-lens array for deflecting the light beams so that their respective principal rays are aligned in parallel with one another,
said second micro-lens array being disposed between said first micro-lens array and the pixels in said liquid crystal display element in the light path of the color rays,
said light-beam dividing means divides the white-light beam into light beams consisting of color rays of the three primary colors,
said liquid crystal display element has sets of three pixels corresponding to the respective three primary colors of the color rays, each set being arranged so that the three pixels are allocated to apexes of a triangle in a predetermined order,
said first micro-lens array includes a transparent substrate that transmits light and a plurality of hexagonal microlenses that are disposed on the transparent substrate,
the plurality of hexagonal micro-lenses are disposed in a honey-comb shape, when seen from an optical-axis direction, each of the plurality of hexagonal microlenses being in an operative relationship with a set of three pixels that are adjacent and aligned in a straight line,
said second micro-lens array includes a corresponding transparent substrate that transmits light and a plurality of rectangular micro-lenses that are disposed on the corresponding transparent substrate,
the plurality of rectangular micro-lenses are disposed in a brick-wall fashion, when seen from the optical-axis direction, each of the plurality of rectangular micro-lenses being in an operative relationship with a set of three pixels that are adjacent and aligned in a straight line.

10 more elements

A projection-type color liquid crystal display comprising:

a white-light source for emitting a white-light beam;
light-beam dividing means for extracting a plurality of color rays having respectively different wavelength ranges from the white-light beam in an order of greater wavelength ranges starting from a longest wavelength and for reducing transmittance of stray light in the extracted plurality of color rays;
a liquid crystal display element on which the color rays are incident and through which the color rays are modulated;
a micro-lens array for converging the color rays onto corresponding pixel apertures in said liquid crystal display element, each color ray being allocated with respect to each wavelength range;
and
projection means for projecting the color rays that have been modulated by said liquid crystal display element.

3 more elements

A projection-type color liquid crystal display comprising:

a white-light source for emitting a white-light beam;
light-beam dividing means for extracting a plurality of color rays having respectively different wavelength ranges from the white-light beam in an order of greater wavelength ranges starting from a longest wavelength;
a liquid crystal display element on which the color rays are incident and through which the color rays are modulated;
a micro-lens array for converging the color rays onto corresponding pixel apertures in said liquid crystal display element, each color ray being allocated with respect to each wavelength range;
projection means for projecting the color rays that have been modulated by said liquid crystal display element;
and
correcting means for reducing rays having yellow and cyan wavelength ranges with respect to spectral characteristics of said white-light source.

4 more elements

A projection-type color liquid crystal display comprising:

a white-light source for emitting a white-light beam;
light-beam dividing means for extracting a plurality of color rays having respectively different wavelength ranges from the white-light beam in an order of greater wavelength ranges starting from a longest wavelength;
a liquid crystal display element on which the color rays are incident and through which the color rays are modulated;
a micro-lens array for converging the color rays onto corresponding pixel apertures in said liquid crystal display element, each color ray being allocated with respect to each wavelength range;
projection means for projecting the color rays that have been modulated by said liquid crystal display element;
a polarizing plate mounted on an incident side of said liquid crystal display element on which the color rays are incident;
and
polarization-axis rotating means for rotating a polarization axis of either p-state polarization or s-state polarization to a direction in which the polarization axis is coincident with a transmitting axis of said polarizing plate, said polarization-axis rotating means being mounted between said light-beam dividing means and said polarizing plate,
said light-beam dividing means having a plurality of dichroic mirrors with spectral characteristics set for the polarization effected by said polarization-axis rotating means.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.