Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Tohoku University

Kazuo Sekiya

Yutaka Ishii

Tatsuo Uchida

Takahiro Ishinabe

Tohru Kawakami

Yoshito Suzuki

Yoshihiro Hashimoto

Shuichi Kozaki

Shoichi Ishihara

Baku Katagiri

Masahiro Nishizawa

Katsunori Ehara

Yoshitaka Yamamoto

Yasuhisa Itoh

To provide a thin optical sheet having improved efficiency for light utilization, an optical sheet () of one mode of the present invention includes, in sequence from a light entry side to a light emission side, a plurality of first prisms (), a &#xbc; wavelength plate (), and a polarized-light separating element (), the plurality of first prisms () each having (i) a first surface () through which light enters the first prism and (ii) a second surface () that reflects the light, having entered the first prism, toward the light emission side, the optical film further including, between the plurality of first prisms in an in-plane direction of the optical film, a second prism () that reflects light.

Optical film

A backlight system () includes a light emitting section () and an imaging optical system. The imaging optical system includes a first microlens array (MLA) and a second microlens array (MLA). The lenses (A) separates the beams of light emitted from the light emitting section () by RGB, and causes them to be converged at a pitch same as a pitch at which the picture elements are arrayed. The lenses (A) are provided in one-to-one correspondence to the picture elements such that the lenses (A) have their respective focal points at positions onto which beams of light having passed through the lenses (A) are converged. The lenses (A) thus deflect the beams of light which have passed through the lenses (A) in a substantially vertical direction with respect to the display surface of the liquid crystal panel.

Backlight system and LCD device using the same

A backlight system includes: a light-emitting section () having a plurality of light sources that emit beams of light at different dominant wavelengths from one another; and an imaging optical system () including a plurality of microlenses () that focus beams of light emitted from the light-emitting section (), the backlight system irradiating a liquid crystal panel with beams of light having passed through the imaging optical system (), the liquid crystal panel including a plurality of pixels arrayed at a predetermined pitch from each other, on the assumption that the pitch at which the pixels are arrayed is denoted as P and the imaging optical system () has an imaging magnification of (1/n), the light sources () being arrayed at a pitch (P) given as P=n&#xd7;P, the microlenses () being arrayed at a pitch (P) given as P=(n/(n+1))&#xd7;P.

Backlight system and liquid crystal display device using the same

A thin backlight system includes: a light emitting section emitting lights that have different dominant wavelengths; and a plurality of light transmitting portions, the thin backlight system deflecting the lights and then converging the lights on the plurality of light transmitting portions. The thin backlight system further includes: an imaging optical system provided to face surfaces, of the plurality of light transmitting portions, on which the lights are converged. The imaging optical system including a plurality of identical lenses arranged in a vertical and/or a horizontal direction at a pitch determined by multiplying a pitch at which the plurality of light transmitting portions are arranged in a vertical and/or a horizontal direction by the number of types of the different dominant wavelengths and being configured to converge the lights from the light emitting section on light transmitting portions to which the different dominant wavelengths of the lights correspond.

Thin backlight system and liquid crystal display device using the same

Growing community of inventors

Sendai, Japan

Kazuo Sekiya