Flat parallel light source
First Claim
1. A flat device for supplying parallel light, comprising:
- a hot cathode fluorescent lamp;
a diffuse reflective chamber with high reflectance walls receiving light from the light source;
an array of holes at a surface of the diffuse reflective chamber;
an array of light reflective cones adjacent to the surface;
each of said cones having a pointed end and a non-pointed end; and
an array of convex lenses adjacent the non-pointed ends of the cones;
wherein each of the cones is substantially aligned along a common axis with a corresponding lens in the array of lenses and is between the corresponding lens and a corresponding hole in the array of holes;
wherein light from the light source passes into diffuse reflective chamber, and then through said holes into said cones and through said lenses to provide parallel output light wherein said fluorescent lamp is further enclosed within a glass pipe, said pipe defining a vacuum chamber therein for housing said lamp to reduce heat loss from the fluorescent lamp, to increase the efficiency of the fluorescent lamp and to thermally insulate the fluorescent lamp from an environment.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention relates to a flat parallel light source using the principle of the mirror reflection and diffuse reflection, which comprises a light source, a diffuse reflective chamber with high reflectance walls, a light coupler, a small hole array at the top surface of said diffuse reflective chamber, a mirror reflective cone array on the small hole array, and a convex lens array on said cone array. The light generated by the light pass through the light coupler into the diffuse reflective chamber, and then pass through the small hole array, mirror reflective cone array, and lens array to form parallel light. The flat parallel light source can generate a high intensity parallel light with excellent parallelism or a given scattering angle parallel light. It can be used for backlighting for all kinds of LCDs, and other equipment where parallel light is needed. It can also be used in LCDs to increase the brightness of the display image and reduce power consumption.
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Citations
17 Claims
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1. A flat device for supplying parallel light, comprising:
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a hot cathode fluorescent lamp; a diffuse reflective chamber with high reflectance walls receiving light from the light source; an array of holes at a surface of the diffuse reflective chamber; an array of light reflective cones adjacent to the surface;
each of said cones having a pointed end and a non-pointed end; andan array of convex lenses adjacent the non-pointed ends of the cones; wherein each of the cones is substantially aligned along a common axis with a corresponding lens in the array of lenses and is between the corresponding lens and a corresponding hole in the array of holes; wherein light from the light source passes into diffuse reflective chamber, and then through said holes into said cones and through said lenses to provide parallel output light wherein said fluorescent lamp is further enclosed within a glass pipe, said pipe defining a vacuum chamber therein for housing said lamp to reduce heat loss from the fluorescent lamp, to increase the efficiency of the fluorescent lamp and to thermally insulate the fluorescent lamp from an environment. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. A flat device for supplying parallel light, comprising:
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a light source; a diffuse reflective chamber with high reflectance walls receiving light from the light source; an array of holes at a surface of the diffuse reflective chamber; an array of light reflective cones adjacent to the surface;
each of said cones having a pointed end and a non-pointed end; andan array of convex lenses adjacent the non-pointed ends of the cones; wherein each of the cones is substantially aligned along a common axis with a corresponding lens in the array of lenses and is between the corresponding lens and a corresponding hole in the array of holes; wherein light from the light source passes into diffuse reflective chamber, and then through said holes into said cones and through said lenses to provide parallel output light further comprising high reflectance walls that define therein a diffuse reflective chamber wherein at least one wall is a diffuse reflective wall and wherein said device further comprises a light window connected to the chamber. - View Dependent Claims (5)
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6. A flat device for supplying parallel light, comprising:
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a light source; a diffuse reflective chamber with high reflectance walls receiving light from the light source; an array of holes at a surface of the diffuse reflective chamber; an array of light reflective cones adjacent to the surface;
each of said cones having a pointed end and a non-pointed end; andan array of convex lenses adjacent the non-pointed ends of the cones; wherein each of the cones is substantially aligned along a common axis with a corresponding lens in the array of lenses and is between the corresponding lens and a corresponding hole in the array of holes; wherein light from the light source passes into diffuse reflective chamber, and then through said holes into said cones and through said lenses to provide parallel output light, and wherein the diffuse reflective chamber is shaped as a flat panel with two sides, wherein the light source is closer to one side than the other, and wherein the side near the light source is thicker, and the other side is thinner to make the output light from the holes more uniform. - View Dependent Claims (7)
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8. A flat device for supplying parallel light, comprising:
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a light source; a diffuse reflective chamber with high reflectance walls receiving light from the light source; an array of holes at a surface of the diffuse reflective chamber; an array of light reflective cones adjacent to the surface;
each of said cones having a pointed end and a non-pointed end; andan array of convex lenses adjacent the non-pointed ends of the cones; wherein each of the cones is substantially aligned along a common axis with a corresponding lens in the array of lenses and is between the corresponding lens and a corresponding hole in the array of holes; wherein light from the light source passes into diffuse reflective chamber, and then through said holes into said cones and through said lenses to Provide parallel output light, wherein said cones have different oblique angles between their walls and a line normal to a surface of the diffuse reflective chamber, said oblique angles having a range from 1°
to 60°
. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A flat device for supplying parallel light, comprising:
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a light source; a diffuse reflective chamber with high reflectance walls, receiving light from the light source; an array of holes at a surface of the diffuse reflective, chamber; an array of light reflective cones adjacent to the surface;
each of said cones having a pointed end and a non-pointed end; andan array of convex lenses adjacent the non-pointed ends of the cones; wherein each of the cones is substantially aligned along a common axis with a corresponding lens in the array of lenses and is between the corresponding lens and a corresponding hole in the array of holes; wherein light from the light source passes into diffuse reflective chamber, and then through said holes into said cones and through said lenses to provide parallel output light, wherein the pointed end of each cone is substantially at the focal point of the corresponding lens.
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17. A flat parallel light source, comprising
a light source; -
a lens array; a diffuse reflective chamber with light reflectance walls; an array of holes at a surface of the diffuse reflective chamber; and an array of light reflective cones on the surface of the, diffuse reflective chamber, each of said cones having a pointed end, and a non-pointed end, wherein said pointed end of each cone is aligned with a corresponding hole; wherein light from the light source passes into said diffuse reflective chamber, and then through said holes into said cones and the lens array to provide parallel output light, said device further comprising a reflector collecting light emitted by the light source and light coupler between said light source and said diffuse reflective chamber to guide passage of light from said light source to said diffuse reflective chamber.
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Specification