Sony Corporation

Masahiro Ochiai

Makoto Aoki

Yasuyuki Kudo

Jun Sasaki

Mariko Fukuda

Yosihide Nagata

A light guide plate includes a light-emitting surface, a light-reflecting surface opposed to the light-emitting surface, and a light-incident surface including a protrusion formed continuously along an edge portion of the light-emitting surface. Accordingly, light that has entered the protrusion is transmitted through the protrusion and totally reflected on an inner surface of the light-emitting surface to thus propagate inside the light guide plate. As described above, since incident light components emitted toward an upper portion of the light-incident surface can be effectively blocked by the protrusion, luminance distribution characteristics as well as a light use efficiency can be improved. The light guide plate is produced by a punching press process.

Light guide plate, surface-emitting apparatus, liquid crystal display apparatus, and method of producing a light guide plate

The present invention provides a plane light source apparatus includes a light guide plate having a flat face portion and an end face portion. A plurality of point light sources are disposed in an opposing relationship to the end face portion of the light guide plate. The light guide plate mixes light from the point light sources incoming from the end face portion thereof and emit the mixed light as illumination light from the flat face portion thereof. The point light sources are a combination of point light sources having chromaticities different from each other within a predetermined standard chromaticity range, and mix light from the point light sources so that the chromaticity of the resulting illumination light fits into a target chromaticity range which is narrower than the standard chromaticity range.

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Tokyo, Japan

Masahiro Ochiai