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Face-lit waveguide illumination systems

  • US 10,030,846 B2
  • Filed: 02/13/2013
  • Issued: 07/24/2018
  • Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2012
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A face-lit waveguide illumination system, comprising:

  • a portion of a light transmitting planar waveguide;

    an elongated optical element attached to a major broad-area surface of said planar waveguide, said elongated optical element having a longer dimension that is much greater than the shorter dimensions and further having a first optically transparent surface facing said planar waveguide and an opposing second optically transparent surface facing away from said planar waveguide;

    a plurality of light sources distributed along said longer dimension and optically coupled to said elongated optical element; and

    one or more light extracting features configured for extracting light from said planar waveguide;

    wherein said second optically transparent surface is configured for reflecting light by means of a total internal reflection, wherein said elongated optical element is configured for injecting light emitted by said light source into said planar waveguide at an angle permitting for propagating substantially all of the injected light in said planar waveguide by means of a total internal reflection; and

    wherein a transversal width of the optical contact area of said elongated optical element with said major broad-area surface is approximately equal to or less than 2d/√

    {square root over (n2

    1)}, where d is the thickness of said planar waveguide and n is the refractive index of the medium of said planar waveguide.

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