Manufacturing apparatus of optical device, manufacturing method thereof and projector

• US 20060170886A1
• Filed: 01/26/2006
• Published: 08/03/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Original Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Inventors: Kitabayashi, Masashi
• Granted Patent: US 7,520,621 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 353/122
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 21/2046 Positional adjustment of light sources
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 43/00 Testing correct operation of photographic apparatus or parts thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/317 Convergence or focusing systems electronic adjustment of convergence H04N9/3185; convergence or focusing arrangements for cathode ray tubes H04N9/28; means for automatic focusing of projectors not peculiar to the presence of an electronic spatial light modulator G03B21/53

Abstract

A manufacturing apparatus of an optical device that is used for a projector, the optical device including a plurality of optical modulators that respectively modulate each of a plurality of color lights in accordance with image information; and a color-combining optical device that combines the color lights modulated by the optical modulators to form an image light, the projector including a projection optical device that is disposed on a downstream of an optical path of the optical device and projects the image light formed by the optical device in an enlarged manner, the manufacturing apparatus, including: a holding unit that holds the color-combining optical device at a predetermined position; position adjusters that respectively hold the optical modulators and adjust positions of the optical modulators relative to the color-combining optical device; dimension-measuring units that measure an external dimension of the color-combining optical device in an optical-axis direction; and a controlling unit that drives the position adjusters, in which the controlling unit includes: a storage that stores distance information relating to a back-focus distance defined in accordance with specifications of the projection optical device; a deviation-amount calculating unit that calculates a deviation amount of an optical path length of a light beam from the optical modulator to the projection optical device when the color-combining optical device is interposed between the optical modulator and the projection optical device based on the external dimension of the color-combining optical device in the optical-axis direction measured by the dimension-measuring units; a back-focus-position calculating unit that calculates a back-focus position of the projection optical device in correspondence with a deviation of the optical path length based on the distance information stored in the storage and the deviation amount of the optical path length calculated by the deviation-amount calculating unit; and a drive controller that drives the position adjusters and positions the optical modulators at the back-focus positions of the projection optical device in correspondence with the deviation of the optical path length calculated by the back-focus-position calculating unit.

Claims

1. A manufacturing apparatus of an optical device that is used for a projector, the optical device including a plurality of optical modulators that respectively modulate each of a plurality of color lights in accordance with image information;

and a color-combining optical device that combines the color lights modulated by the optical modulators to form an image light, the projector including a projection optical device that is disposed on a downstream of an optical path of the optical device and projects the image light formed by the optical device in an enlarged manner, the manufacturing apparatus, comprising;

a holding unit that holds the color-combining optical device at a predetermined position;

position adjusters that respectively hold the optical modulators and adjust positions of the optical modulators relative to the color-combining optical device;

dimension-measuring units that measure an external dimension of the color-combining optical device in an optical-axis direction; and

a controlling unit that drives the position adjusters, wherein the controlling unit includes;

a storage that stores distance information relating to a back-focus distance defined in accordance with specifications of the projection optical device;

a deviation-amount calculating unit that calculates a deviation amount of an optical path length of a light beam from the optical modulator to the projection optical device when the color-combining optical device is interposed between the optical modulator and the projection optical device based on the external dimension of the color-combining optical device in the optical-axis direction measured by the dimension-measuring units;

a back-focus-position calculating unit that calculates a back-focus position of the projection optical device in correspondence with a deviation of the optical path length based on the distance information stored in the storage and the deviation amount of the optical path length calculated by the deviation-amount calculating unit; and

a drive controller that drives the position adjusters and positions the optical modulators at the back-focus positions of the projection optical device in correspondence with the deviation of the optical path length calculated by the back-focus-position calculating unit.

2. The manufacturing apparatus of the optical device according to claim 1, further comprising:

an adjustment light-source device that introduces a position-adjusting light beam to the optical modulator; and

a light-beam detector that detects the image light passing through the optical modulator and the color-combining optical device, wherein

the controlling unit includes;

a capturing unit that captures the image detected by the light-beam detector and converts the captured image to an image signal; and

an image processor that performs an image processing based on the image signal output by the capturing unit and judges best attitude positions of the optical modulators based on results of the image processing, and

after positioning the optical modulators at the back-focus positions of the projection optical device in correspondence with the deviation of the optical path length, the drive controller drives the position adjusters based on the best attitude positions judged by the image processor and finely adjusts the positions of the optical modulators.

3. The manufacturing apparatus of the optical device according to claim 1, wherein

the dimension-measuring unit includes:

a laser-beam irradiation unit that irradiates a laser beam to a reference position or a measurement position in measuring an external dimension of an object to be measured in the optical-axis direction; and

a laser-beam-receiving unit that receives the laser beam reflected at the reference position or the measurement position, and

the dimension-measuring unit measures the external dimension of the object to be measured in the optical-axis direction based on a deviation between a light-receiving position on the laser-beam-receiving unit of the laser beam reflected at the reference position and a light-receiving position on the laser-beam-receiving unit of the laser beam reflected at the measurement position.

4. The manufacturing apparatus of the optical device according to claim 1, wherein

the color-combining optical device has a rectangular shape in plan view, and

the dimension-measuring unit has two image pickups that respectively capture rectangular diagonal areas of the color-combining optical device and measure the external dimension of the color-combining optical device in the optical-axis direction based on a deviation between designed reference top positions of reference diagonal areas of the color-combining optical device and top positions of the diagonal areas captured by the two image pickups.

5. The manufacturing apparatus of the optical device according to claim 4, wherein

the dimension-measuring unit measures a rotation angle of the color-combining optical device relative to a designed reference position based on the reference diagonal areas and the diagonal areas captured by the two image pickups,

the controlling unit has a position-adjustment-amount calculating section that calculates position adjustment amounts of the optical modulators in accordance with a rotation of the color-combining optical device based on the rotation angle of the color-combining optical device measured by the dimension-measuring unit, and

the drive controller drives the position adjusters based on the position adjustment amounts calculated by the position-adjustment-amount calculating section and positions the optical modulators at positions corresponding to the position adjustment amounts.

6. A manufacturing method of an optical device that is used for a projector, the optical device including a plurality of optical modulators that respectively modulate each of a plurality of color lights in accordance with image information;

and a color-combining optical device that combines the color lights modulated by the optical modulators to form an image light, the projector including a projection optical device that is disposed on a downstream of an optical path of the optical device and projects the image light formed by the optical device in an enlarged manner, the manufacturing method, comprising;

device-attaching for attaching the color-combining optical device at a predetermined position;

dimension-measuring for measuring an external dimension of the color-combining optical device in an optical-axis direction;

deviation-amount-calculating for calculating a deviation amount of an optical path length of a light beam from the optical modulator to the projection optical device when the color-combining optical device is interposed between the optical modulator and the projection optical device based on the external dimension of the color-combining optical device in the optical-axis direction measured in the dimension-measuring;

back-focus-position-calculating for calculating a back-focus position of the projection optical device in correspondence with a deviation of the optical path length based on the deviation amount of the optical path length calculated in the deviation-amount-calculating and distance information relating to a back-focus distance defined in accordance with specifications of the projection optical device;

optical-modulator-holding for holding the optical modulators by the position adjusters; and

positioning the optical modulators at the back-focus positions of the projection optical device in correspondence with the deviation of the optical path length calculated in the back-focus-position-calculating by driving the position adjusters.

7. A projector, comprising:

a light source device;

an optical device; and

a projection optical device that projects an image light formed by the optical device in an enlarged manner, wherein

the optical device is manufactured by a manufacturing method, including;

device-attaching for attaching the color-combining optical device at a predetermined position;

dimension-measuring for measuring an external dimension of the color-combining optical device in an optical-axis direction;

deviation-amount-calculating for calculating a deviation amount of an optical path length of a light beam from the optical modulator to the projection optical device when the color-combining optical device is interposed between the optical modulator and the projection optical device based on the external dimension of the color-combining optical device in the optical-axis direction measured in the dimension-measuring;

back-focus-position-calculating for calculating a back-focus position of the projection optical device in correspondence with a deviation of the optical path length based on the deviation amount of the optical path length calculated in the deviation-amount-calculating and distance information relating to a back-focus distance defined in accordance with specifications of the projection optical device;

optical-modulator-holding for holding the optical modulators by the position adjusters;

positioning the optical modulators at the back-focus positions of the projection optical device in correspondence with the deviation of the optical path length calculated in the back-focus-position-calculating by driving the position adjusters.