Anamorphic illumination of micro-electromechanical display devices employed in multimedia projectors
AssigneeInFocus Corporation
InventorMark Peterson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Micro-electromechanical display device (“MDD”)-based multimedia projectors (90, 120) of this invention employ an arc lamp (32), a color modulator (42), and anamorphic illumination systems (94, 121) for optimally illuminating a MDD (50, 76) to improve projected image brightness. MDDs employ off-axis illumination wherein incident and reflected light bundles are angularly separated about a hinge axis (78, 110) and the MDD is illuminated by the anamorphic illumination systems of this invention having a slow f/# parallel to the hinge axis and a faster f/# perpendicular to the hinge axis. The resulting anamorphic light bundles (86, 88, 112, 114) illuminate and reflect more light into and off the MDD and through a fast f/# projection lens.
Claims20
In a multimedia projector in which a micro-electromechanical display device (“MDD”) includes an array of micromirrors that each pivot on a hinge axis to effect pixel on- and off-states whereby the MDD provides a projected image by receiving an incident illumination bundle and for pixels in the on-state reflects a reflected image bundle through a projection lens, an apparatus for increasing a brightness of the projected image comprising:
- an illumination source propagating light rays along an optical axis;
- an anamorphic optical device receiving the light rays and forming an anamorphic incident illumination bundle that illuminates the MDD at a first f/number perpendicular to a first of the hinge axes and at a substantially faster second f/number parallel to the first hinge axis.
In a multimedia projector, a method of operation comprising:
- generating light rays from an illumination source of the multimedia projector;
- receiving and shaping the generated light rays by an anamorphic optical device of the multimedia projector to form an anamorphic incident illumination bundle with a substantially elliptical cross section to illuminate a micro-electromechanical display device (MDD), the MDD having a plurality of micromirrors, each micromirror having a hinge axis, the substantially elliptical cross section of incident illumination bundle having a first axis perpendicular to a first of the hinge axes, and a second axis parallel to the first hinge axis, the second axis being longer than the first axis.
In a multimedia projector, an apparatus comprising:
- an illumination source generating light rays along an optical axis;
- an anamorphic optical device receiving the light rays and shaping an anamorphic incident illumination bundle with a substantially elliptical cross section to illuminate a micro-electromechanical display device (MDD), the MDD having a plurality of micromirrors, each micromirror having a hinge axis, the substantially elliptical cross section of incident illumination bundle having a first axis perpendicular to a first of the hinge axes, and a second axis parallel to the first hinge axis, the second axis being longer than the first axis.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.