Illumination device, image display device, and projector

• US 7,518,802 B2
• Filed: 09/01/2004
• Issued: 04/14/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Original Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Inventors: Kojima, Hideki
• Primary Examiner(s): Schwartz; Jordan M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): JONES, JAMES
• Application Number:
  US10/930,756
• Publication Number:
  US 20070171646A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,686 Days
• Field of Search: 359/634
• US Class Current: 359/634
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 21/2066 Reflectors in illumination beam in projection beam G03B21/28
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 21/208 Homogenising, shaping of the illumination light
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/3117 by using a sequential colour filter producing two or more colours simultaneously, e.g. by creating scrolling colour bands
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/3155 for controlling the light source light source control per se H05B35/00 – H05B47/00; control of an illumination source for displays in general G09G3/3406

Abstract

An illumination device to increase or decrease a quantity of light, while maintaining a uniform illumination intensity distribution, an image display device that displays high-quality images with a wide dynamic range, and a projector are provided. The illumination device includes a light source including a lamp and a concave mirror and emitting an illumination light, a variable diaphragm, for example in the form of a shutter having a linear edge and controlling the quantity of the illumination light, and a rotary prism which is an illumination light scanning device to scan the illumination light that passed through the variable diaphragm over an irradiated surface. The axis of the direction in which the illumination light is scanned over the irradiated surface almost coincides with the axis of the direction in which the variable diaphragm controls the illumination light. Here, the control modes in the +x axis direction, −x axis direction and ±x axis direction are used to match the axis.

Claims

1. An illumination device, comprising:

a light source to emit an illumination light;

a color separation optical system to separate the illumination light into illumination lights of at least two colors;

a variable diaphragm disposed in the optical path of each of the at least two colors of the separated illumination light to control the quantity of the separated illumination light for each of the at least two colors the quantity of light being controlled with respect to a specific wavelength region contained in the illumination light; and

an illumination light scanning device to scan the illumination light that passed through each variable diaphragm over an irradiated surface, the axis of the direction in which the illumination light is scanned over the irradiated surface almost coinciding with the axis of the direction in which each variable diaphragm controls the illumination light.

2. The illumination device according to claim 1,

the variable diaphragm being provided in a conjugate plane or in a vicinity of the conjugate plane of the irradiated surface.

3. The illumination device according to claim 1,

the variable diaphragm being capable of controlling the quantity of light only with respect to a specific wavelength region contained in the illumination light.

4. The illumination device according to claim 2, further comprising:

a rod to reflect the illumination light falling from an incoming end surface by an inner wall or outer wall and causing the light to be emitted from an outgoing end surface; and

an image forming lens to form an image of the outgoing end surface of the rod on the irradiated surface or a conjugate plane of the irradiated surface,

the variable diaphragm being provided in a vicinity of the outgoing end surface of the rod, at a conjugate plane of the outgoing end surface, or in a vicinity of a conjugate plane of the outgoing end surface.

5. The illumination device according to claim 2, further comprising:

a lens array unit including a plurality of fly-eye lenses to split the illumination light into a plurality of partial lights and condense them; and

a superposition lens unit to superimpose the partial lights on the irradiated surface or a plane conjugate with the irradiated surface, the variable diaphragm being provided in a vicinity of the fly-eye lenses, at a conjugate plane of the fly-eye lenses, or in a vicinity of the conjugate plane of the fly-eye lenses.

6. The illumination device according to claim 1,

the illumination light scanning device having a rotary prism which is rotated to vary the refraction angle of the illumination light and scan the illumination light.

7. An image display device, comprising:

the illumination device according to claim 1 and

a spatial light modulation device to modulate the illumination light from the illumination device according to the image signal.

8. A projector, comprising:

the image display device according to claim 7 and a projection device to project the image displayed with the image display device.

9. The projector according to claim 8, comprising:

an optical sensor to detect at least one of an illumination intensity and chromaticity of the image projected with the projection device, wherein both a quantity of light controlled with the variable diaphragm by using detected data from the optical sensor and a modulation quantity of the illumination light modulated with the spatial light modulation device are varied.