Polarization modulation wheel
AssigneeRealD Inc.
InventorGary D. Sharp
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A polarization switch provides substantially ideal binary polarization switching over a broad range of wavelengths using a polarization modulation wheel having at least one retarder stack that transforms polarization. Using the polarization modulation wheel in a polarization system provides a high throughput polarization switch and operates over a wide range of incidence angles while providing substantially continuous and smooth polarization output for each component for any selected polarization basis set. The polarization modulation wheel is well-suited for stereoscopic polarized projection applications.
Claims26
A polarization modulator operable to temporally modulate incoming linearly polarized light on a light path, comprising:
- a polarization wheel located on the linearly polarized light path, the polarization wheel having a first circular arc and a second circular arc,
- wherein at least one of the first circular arc and the second circular arc comprises a multi-layer retarder stack filter having a plurality of linear retarders.
A stereoscopic projection system, comprising:
- a projector subsystem;
- and
- a polarization modulator subsystem,
- the polarization modulator subsystem being operable to temporally modulate projected images from the projector subsystem into orthogonal polarization states,
- wherein the polarization modulator subsystem comprises:
- a polarization wheel having a first circular arc and a second circular arc, wherein the first circular arc comprises a first multi-layer retarder stack filter having a first plurality of linear retarders, and wherein the second circular arc comprises a second multi-layer retarder stack filter having a first plurality of linear retarders.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.