Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Hiroshi Nakanishi

Hiroshi Hamada

Takashi Shibatani

Kuniaki Okada

Yukio Kurata

Yoshihiro Sekimoto

Yasuhiro Kume

Takashi Kurihara

Kazuya Kitamura

Hiromi Kato

Ikuo Takahara

Hiromi Katoh

Naoyuki Tanaka

Toshiyuki Makii

Yukiko Nagasaka

Fumiaki Funada

Yutaka Takafuji

Masahiro Adachi

Takeshi Masuda

Noriko Watanabe

Tokihiko Shinomiya

Akiyoshi Fujii

Akihito Jinda

Akitsugu Hatano

Kazuhiko Tamai

Yukihiro Sumida

Nobuyoshi Nagashima

Akihisa Iwamoto

Kenji Nishiguchi

Osamu Miyazaki

Yoshihiro Mizuguchi

Tadashi Kawamura

Noboru Fujita

Takuji Yamatani

Yasukazu Tomita

Hioroshi Hamada

Kazuhiro Shibata

Hideki Ohshima

Masuji Tanimura

Masami Inoue

In the present display apparatus, the directivity of light emitted from a backlight is set high in the direction along which a pixel pitch is long, and such light is caused to spread by a lenticular lens. In this manner, in the present display apparatus, the light entering the lenticular lens is parallelized by increasing the directivity of the light emitted from the backlight. For this reason, an amount of light whose traveling direction can be controlled by the lenticular lens (i.e. light focusing on pixels) can be increased, as compared to a display apparatus in which light emitted from a backlight has a low directivity. With this arrangement, both the frontal brightness and the viewing angle of a liquid crystal panel can be increased.

Display apparatus and electronic device

A production method for a display panel according to the present invention is production method for a display panelincluding a display paneland a plurality of microlensesprovided on a light-incident side of the display panel, including: (a) a step of providing a display panel having a plurality of pixels in a matrix arrangement, wherein each of the plurality of pixels has a plurality of picture elements, including a first picture elementB transmitting first color light and a second picture elementR (G) transmitting second color light which is different from the first color light; (b) a step of forming a photocurable material layeron one of a pair of principal faces, being opposite to each other, of the display panel; (c) a step of exposing the photocurable material layer to light via the display panel, wherein the photocurable material layer is at least partially cured with light which has been transmitted through at least the first picture element; and (d) a step of removing an uncured portion of the photocurable material layer' having been exposed to light, thereby forming a plurality of microlenses

Method of producing micro-lens-carrying display panel and display unit and exposure system

In a micro-lens array substrate () that includes first and second micro-lens arrays () respectively having a plurality of lenses, the first micro-lens array () is sandwiched between two inorganic dielectric substrates (), and the second micro-lens array () is formed on one of the two inorganic dielectric substrates ().

Micro-lens array substrate and production method therefor, and projection type liquid crystal display unit using those

The invention provides an image shifting device including at least one image shifting part for periodically shifting the position of an optical axis. The image shifting part includes a liquid crystal devicefor switching a polarization direction of light between two orthogonal directions in accordance with High/Low level of an applied voltage, and a birefringent devicehaving different refractive indexes depending upon the polarization direction of the light. The liquid crystal deviceand the birefringent deviceare disposed to transmit light in this order. A liquid crystal layer included in the liquid crystal deviceis made of a TN liquid crystal layer that satisfies a relationship formula of 0.25&#x3c;d/p&#x3c;1, wherein a natural pitch length is indicated by p and a cell gap is indicated by d, and is disposed to be twisted at 90&#xb0; within the liquid crystal cell.

Image shifting device, image display, liquid crystal display, and projection image display

A light source, an image display panel including multiple pixel regions, each of which modulates light, light control means for focusing light from the light source onto associated pixel regions according to their wavelength ranges, and optical systems that form an image on a projection plane by the light that has been modulated by the panel are provided. A circuit for generating data representing multiple image subframes from data representing each image frame as a component of the image and getting the subframes displayed by the panel time-sequentially, and an image shifter for shifting a selected one of the subframes on the projection plane are further provided. The same area on the projection plane is sequentially irradiated with light rays that have been modulated by different pixel regions of the panel and that fall within respectively different wavelength ranges.

Projection type image display device

An optical shifter includes at least one shifting section that periodically displaces the optical axis of incoming linearly polarized light. The shifting section includes first and second liquid crystal cells and a birefringent element. Each of the liquid crystal cells changes the polarization direction of the incoming light from a first direction into a second direction, or vice versa, responsive to a voltage being applied to the cell. The first and second directions are perpendicular to each other. The birefringent element changes its refractive indices with the polarization direction of the light incident thereon. The first and second cells and the birefringent element are arranged to transmit the incoming light in this order. The liquid crystal layer of the second cell compensates for a disturbance in polarization that was caused while the incoming linearly polarized light was transmitted through the liquid crystal layer of the first cell.

Optical shifter and optical display system

An object of the invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a microlens array and a projection-type liquid crystal display apparatus which can increase the efficiency of use of light, facilitate a method of manufacturing a microlens array and reduce the cost of equipment. By an operation of only irradiating a first lens with parallel light which has an intensity distribution corresponding to the shape of a second lens and irradiating an ultraviolet curing resin layer with transmission light, the first and second lenses are placed with a high alignment accuracy in a mutual positional relation thereof. By irradiating the first lens with the parallel light, it becomes possible to uniformly expose a broad area, and it becomes possible to expose by the wafer.

Method of microlens array and projection type of liquid crystal display apparatus

A projection type optical display system includes: a light source; at least one liquid crystal panel for modulating light that has been emitted from the light source; and a projection optical system for projecting the light that has gone out of the at least one liquid crystal panel. The liquid crystal panel includes: a liquid crystal layer; a first polarizer and a second polarizer, which are provided on the light incoming side and the light outgoing side of the liquid crystal layer, respectively; a first uniaxial optical compensator, which is provided between the liquid crystal layer and the first polarizer; a first biaxial optical compensator, which is provided between the first uniaxial optical compensator and the first polarizer; and a second biaxial optical compensator, which is provided between the liquid crystal layer and the second polarizer.

Projection type optical display system

An optical device includes an optical path shifter that has at least one optical path shifting section. The optical path shifting section includes: a polarization modulator for changing the polarization state of an incoming light ray; and a birefringent element for shifting the optical path of an outgoing light ray of the polarization modulator based on the polarization state of the outgoing light ray. The optical device further includes a polarization corrector, which selectively changes the polarization state of an outgoing light ray of the optical path shifter, thereby keeping the polarization state of an outgoing light ray of the polarization corrector substantially unchanged no matter where the optical path has been shifted.

Path shifting optical device having polarization correcting section and optical display system including same

An exposing apparatus for a microlens array allows for easy alignment and attains high accuracy. An exposing method for a microlens array attains high accuracy and high light efficiency. The exposing apparatus for a microlens array includes a micro fly-eye lens for converting a light beam from a light source into a secondary point light source, a transmittance distribution mask for adjusting the luminance of the light of the secondary point light source, and a collimator lens for converting the light of adjusted luminance into a parallel light beam and for guiding the parallel light beam, via a first microlens array which is formed in advance, to a photosensitive resin layer to be a second microlens array. The light emitted from the light source is transmitted through the micro fly-eye lens, the transmittance distribution mask, and the collimator lens. The light is then adjusted to a desired luminance to expose the photosensitive resin of a microlens substrate.

Exposing apparatus and exposing method for microlens array

An optical lens system in accordance with the present invention is arranged so that, when the micro-lens has a curved surface satisfying an inequality of (n /n )&times;sin(&thgr;max)&gE;1, where n1 indicates an index of refraction of a medium constituting one side of the curved surface of the lens, n2 (n <n ) indicates an index of refraction of a medium constituting the other side of the curved surface of the lens, &thgr; indicates an incident angle of the light with respect to a plane-normal of the curved surface of the lens when the light from the light source is directed to the curved surface of the lens of the micro-lens from a side of the medium having the index of refraction of n and &thgr; max indicates a maximum value of the angle &thgr; in the curved surface of the micro-lens, the micro-lens array is provided so that the light from the light source is directed to the micro-lens from the side of the medium having the index of refraction of n1. When using such an optical lens system as an image display apparatus of projection-type, it is possible to obtain the bright projection image.

Optical lens system, image display apparatus, micro-lens array, liquid crystal display device, and liquid crystal display apparatus of projection-type

A projection type color image display apparatus of the present invention includes: a light source section for generating white light beams; a first fly-eye lens array comprising a plurality of lenses for forming a plurality of secondary light source image spots of the light source section; a second fly-eye lens array comprising at least the same number of lenses as the first fly-eye lens array, provided near a position where the plurality of secondary light source image spots are formed by the first fly-eye lens array; a microlens array comprising a plurality of microlenses, wherein the light beams which have passed through the respective lenses of the second fly-eye lens array are superimposed on one another on the microlens array; a single image display device comprising a plurality of color pixels arranged in a predetermined arrangement for modulating the light beams from the microlenses; a color separator provided in a predetermined position in an optical path from the light source section to the microlens array for color-separating the white light beams into R, G and B beams; and a projection lens for projecting the light beams output from the image display device.

Projection type color image display apparatus

The image display apparatus of this invention includes: an illumination optical system for outputting a light beam of red, green, and blue three primary color light components in the state where two of the three color light components are different in polarization direction from the other color light component; a beam splitter for splitting the light beam output from the illumination optical system according to the polarization direction; a color separator for separating the two color light components having the same polarization direction: a plurality of reflection image display elements for modulating the light beams separated by the beam splitter and the color separator; and a projection optical system for projecting the light beams modulated by the plurality of reflection image display elements.

Image display apparatus

A projection type image display apparatus of the present invention includes: a light source; a polarization selective reflection element having a function of reflecting or transmitting a light beam from the light source in accordance with a polarization direction thereof; and an element for modulating a polarization plane of an incident light beam in accordance with an image to be displayed. The polarization selective reflection element is film-like and has an optical transmission axis and an optical reflection axis. The polarization selective reflection element transmits a first linearly polarized light beam, and reflects a second linearly polarized light beam having a polarization plane orthogonal to a polarization plane of the first linearly polarized light beam, regardless of a direction of incidence of a light beam with respect to the polarization selective reflection element.

Projection type image display apparatus

A microlens array is provided on a light-outgoing side of a monochromic LCD element having a plurality of pixels each corresponding to any one of the three colors R, G, and B. Microlenses of the microlens array respectively correspond to pixel groups each of which is composed of three pixels corresponding to the three colors R, G, and B, respectively. Light fluxes having passed through the microlens array are converged at an entrance pupil position of a projection lens by a field lens and form pixel enlarged images corresponding to the colors R, G, and B. At the entrance pupil position, there is provided a color filter having color regions which respectively correspond to the colors to which the pixel enlarged images correspond. With this arrangement, it is possible to make a diverging angle smaller, at which light passing through the LCD element and the microlens array and being converged on the projection lens by the field lens is diverged. Therefore, there is no need to make the projection lens have a great diameter. As a result, it is possible to provide a projection-type color LCD device having a single-panel arrangement which can be produced at lower costs.

Growing community of inventors

Yawata, Japan

Hiroshi Nakanishi