Efficient light engine systems, components and methods of manufacture

A light engine comprising:

• a sealed optical system enclosing an energizable gas, and said sealed optical system comprising a primary reflector system, a retro reflector system and at least one i-th exit window;
• means for energizing said gas between two opposite electrodes tips, said tips defining a source axis and energizing a semitransparent, spatially extended plasma region, thereby creating an emission source S having an asymmetric spatial dependent intensity distribution SI(x,y;S) and an asymmetric angular dependent emission energy density function AI(φ,Ψ;S) in a plane containing said source axis;
• said primary reflector system having a first focal point F1 and a least one secondary i-th focal point F2,i defining an i-th system axis;
• said source S being located proximate to said first focal point F1 an d said source axis being aligned substantially perpendicular to said at least one i-th system axis;
• said retro reflector system having at least one i-th exit port sealed by said at least one i-th exit window and comprising at least one concave retro reflector, said retro reflector system collecting and retro-reflecting a portion of said energy emitted from said source S back into said source S, the combination of said source S and said retro reflector system thereby creating an effective retro-reflected emission source Sr, and said source Sr having a respective spatial dependent emission energy density function emission intensity distribution SI(x,y;Sr) in a plane perpendicular to said system axis and containing said source axis;
• said primary reflector system comprising at least one concave reflector, said primary reflector system collecting and reflecting a portion of the energy emitted from said source Sr and concentrating a substantial portion of said collected electromagnetic energy around said electrodes and through said at least one i-th exit window near said at least one secondary focal point F2,i, thus forming at least one i-th secondary emission source S′i, having its longest dimension oriented substantially parallel to said source axis and having a respective spatial dependent intensity distribution SI(x,y;S′i) perpendicular to said i-th system axis and proximate to said at least one secondary focal point F2,i;
• and
• where curvatures, and extent of said primary and retro reflector systems and of said at least one i-th exit port are chosen to produce at least one secondary source S′i having an intensity distribution SI(x,y;S′i) that is a quasi-imaging magnification of said intensity distribution SI(x,y;Sr) and having an angular dependent AI(φ,Ψ;S′) with its biggest extent oriented approximately perpendicular to said source axis and its smallest extent approximately parallel to said source axis;
• thereby forming a sealed minimal light engine without any envelope blockage losses.

A light engine comprising:

• a quasi-imaging minimal light engine (MLE) for collection of electromagnetic energy emitted from a gas discharge lamp having an electromagnetic energy emission source S and for concentration of a portion of said collected energy, thus forming a respective spatial and angular reformatted secondary source S′;
• a configurable illumination target comprising at least one configurable pixel generating at least one processed output beam;
• a coupling optic collecting a portion of electromagnetic energy emitted by said secondary source S′ and providing an illumination beam for said configurable illumination target;
• and
• a projection optic collecting a portion of said at least one processed output beam from said configurable illumination target and further including means to translate said collected processed output beam portion into a scaled image of said configurable illumination target at a remote display target;
• and with
• said MLE comprising:
• a retro reflector system;
• a primary reflector system having a first and second focal point F1 and F2 defining a system axis;
• and
• a gas discharge lamp system comprising a gas tight, semitransparent envelope enclosing an energizable gas and including means for creating and energizing at least one spatially extended, semitransparent region of said gas, thereby creating said emission source S that emits electromagnetic energy escaping from said lamp system through said envelope and with the longest dimension of said source S defining a source axis;
• said source axis being aligned substantially perpendicular to said system axis and said source S being located proximate to said focal point F1;
• said retro reflector system having an exit port and comprising at least one primary concave retro-reflector, said retro reflector system collecting and retro-reflecting a portion of said energy emitted from said source S back into said lamp system proximate to said source S, the combination of said source S and said retro reflector system thereby creating an effective retro-reflected emission source Sr emitting into a substantially reduced solid angle space than said source S emits and said source Sr having a respective spatial dependent emission intensity distribution SI(x,y;Sr) in a plane perpendicular to said system axis and containing said source axis;
• said primary reflector system comprising at least one concave reflector, said primary reflector system collecting and reflecting a portion of the energy emitted from said source Sr and concentrating the major portion of said reflected energy approximately symmetrically around said envelope near said focal point F2, thus creating said secondary emission source S′ having a respective spatial dependent intensity distribution SI(x,y;S′) perpendicular to said system axis and proximate to focal point F2;
• and
• where curvatures and extent of said primary reflector system and said retro reflector systems and said exit port are chosen such that said spatial asymmetric intensity distribution SI(x,y;S′) has its longest dimension substantially parallel to said source axis and is a quasi-imaging magnification of said intensity distributions SI(x,y;Sr);
• thereby forming a projection light engine (PLE).

A light engine comprising:

• a minimal light engine (MLE) for collection of electromagnetic energy emitted from a lamp having an electromagnetic energy emission source S and for concentration of a portion of said concentrated energy, thus forming a respective spatial and angular reformatted secondary source S′;
• and
• an anamorphic beam transformer (ABT)having at least one input port and at least one output port, said at least one input port collecting electromagnetic energy that has been emitted from said secondary source S′ and transporting a portion of said collected energy to said at least one output port of said ABT;
• said MLE comprising:
• a retro reflector system;
• a primary reflector system having a first and second focal point F1 and F2 defining a system axis;
• and
• a lamp system including means for energizing at least one spatially extended emission source S that emits electromagnetic energy escaping from said lamp system in a non symmetric angular dependent manner and with the narrowest dimension of the angular dependent intensity distribution AI(φ,Ψ;S) of said lamp system defining a source axis;
• said source axis being aligned substantially perpendicular to said system axis and said source S being located proximate to said focal point F1;
• said retro reflector system having an exit port and comprising at least one primary concave retro-reflector, said retro reflector system collecting and retro-reflecting a portion of said energy emitted from said source S back into said lamp system proximate to said source S, the combination of said source S and said retro reflector system thereby creating an effective retro-reflected emission source Sr emitting into a substantially reduced solid angle space than said source S emits and said source Sr having a respective spatial dependent emission intensity distribution SI(x,y;Sr) in a plane perpendicular to said system axis and containing said source axis;
• said primary reflector system comprising at least one concave reflector, said primary reflector system collecting and reflecting a portion of the energy emitted from said source Sr and concentrating the major portion of said reflected energy approximately symmetrically around said source S near said focal point F2, thus creating said secondary emission source S′ having a respective spatial dependent emission energy density function SI(x,y;S′) and an asymmetric angular dependent AI(φ,Ψ;S′) perpendicular to said system axis and proximate to said focal point F2;
• and
• where curvatures and extent of said primary reflector system and said retro reflector systems and said exit port are chosen such that said angular dependent asymmetric emission energy density function AI(φ,Ψ;S′) has its shortest dimension substantially parallel to said source axis and
• where said spatial dependent intensity distribution SI(x,y;S′) is a quasi-imaging magnification of said intensity distributions SI(x,y;Sr);
• and
• where said MLE emits an asymmetric angular dependent output beam which has a wider angular spread orthogonal to said source axis and a narrower angular spread parallel to said source axis, and
• wherein said ABT resizes said spatial dependent intensity distribution SI(φ,Ψ;S′) and said angular dependent emission energy density function AI(φ,ΨS′) in an asymmetric manner parallel and orthogonal to said source axis between said input and said output port thereby forming an anamorphic beam transformer light engine (ABTLE).

A light engine comprising:

• a minimal light engine (MLE) for collection of electromagnetic energy from a filament lamp having an emission filament source S and concentrating of a portion of said energy to form at least one respective spatial and angular reformatted i-th secondary source S′i;
• and
• a light guide having at least one input and one output port, said light guide collecting electromagnetic energy emitted from said at least one i-th secondary emission source S′i with at least one input port and delivering a substantial portion of said collected energy to at least one output port;
• and
• said MLE comprises:
• a retro reflector system;
• a primary reflector system having a first focal point F1 and a least one secondary i-th focal point F2,i defining an i-th system axis;
• a filament lamp comprising a semitransparent envelope enclosing a tungsten filament and including means for heating said filament, thereby creating said emission source S having a geometrical source center C that emits electromagnetic energy escaping said filament lamps through said envelope and with the longest direction of said filament defining a source axis and the widest dimension orthogonal to said source axis defining a width W and a widest width axis;
• said source axis being aligned perpendicular to said i-th system axis with the shortest distance D between said first focal point F1 and said source center C fulfilling the equation D≧2W;
• said retro reflector system having at least one i-th exit port and comprising at least one concave retro reflector, said retro reflector system collecting and retro-reflecting a portion of said energy emitted from said source S back into said filament lamp and proximate to said source S, the combination of said source S and said retro reflector system thereby creating an effective retro-reflected emission source Sr, said source Sr having a respective spatial dependent emission intensity distribution SI(x,y;Sr) in a plane perpendicular to said system axis and containing said source axis;
• said primary reflector system comprising at least one concave reflector, said primary reflector system collecting and reflecting a portion of the energy emitted from said source Sr and concentrating a substantial portion of said collected electromagnetic energy approximately symmetrically around said envelope near said at least one secondary focal point F2′i, thus creating at least one secondary emission source S′i, having a respective spatial dependent intensity distribution SI(x,y;S′i) perpendicular to said i-th system axis and proximate to said i-th secondary focal point F2,i;
• and
• where curvatures and extent of said primary and retro reflector systems and said at least one i-th exit port are chosen to produce an at least one secondary source S′i having an intensity distribution SI(x,y;S′i) along a respective minimal étendue surface that is a quasi-imaging magnification of said intensity distribution SI(x,y;S) of said source S;
• thereby forming a filament source light guide light engine.

A light engine comprising:

• a quasi-imaging minimal light engine (MLE) for collection of electromagnetic energy emitted from a fluorescing emission volume source S having a longest dimension forming a source axis and for concentration of a portion of said collected energy, thus forming a respective spatial and angular reformatted secondary source S′;
• means for exciting said source S to emit electromagnetic energy in at least one first wavelength band by illuminating it with electromagnetic energy of at least one second wavelength band which is shorter in wavelength than said first band;
• said MLE comprising:
• a retro-reflector system;
• a primary reflector system having a first and second focal point F1and F2defining a system axis;
• and where said source axis being aligned substantially perpendicular to said system axis and said source S being located proximate to said focal point F1;
• said retro-reflector system having an exit port and comprising at least one primary concave retro-reflector, said retro-reflector system collecting and retro-reflecting a portion of said energy emitted from said source S back proximal said focal point F1, the combination of said source S and said retro-reflector system thereby creating an effective retro-reflected emission source Sr emitting into a substantially reduced solid angle space than said source S emits and said source Sr having a respective spatial dependent emission intensity distribution SI (x,y;Sr) in a plane perpendicular to said system axis and containing said source axis;
• said primary reflector system comprising at least one concave reflector, said primary reflector system collecting and reflecting a portion of the energy emitted from said source Sr and concentrating the major portion of said reflected energy approximately symmetrically around said source S near said focal point F2, thus creating said secondary emission source S′ having a respective spatial dependent intensity distribution SI(x,y;S′) perpendicular to said system axis and proximate to focal point F2;
• and
• where curvatures and extent of said primary reflector system and said retro-reflector systems and said exit port are chosen such that said intensity distribution SI (x,y;S′) is a quasi-imaging magnification of said intensity distributions SI(x,y;Sr) and having an angular dependent emission energy density function AI(φ,Ψ;S′) with its biggest extent oriented approximately perpendicular to said source axis and its smallest extent approximately parallel to said source axis;
• thereby forming a fluorescence conversion light engine.