3m Innovative Properties Company

Sayaka Kado

Gary Timothy Boyd

Kazuhiko Toyooka

Hideaki Shirotori

A backlight to a display includes an array of discrete light sources and a plurality of optical films disposed between the display and the light sources. Each film includes a regular array of intersecting ridges defining a plurality of through-holes. Each of the through-holes extends between first and second open ends of the through-hole. A cross-section of the optical film in a plane parallel to a thickness direction of the film includes two adjacent ridges in the array of ridges and a through-hole therebetween. The film has a maximum thickness hand the through-hole includes a side wall with a substantially vertical portion connected to the first open end of the through-hole and a substantially horizontal portion extending from the substantially vertical portion and connected to the second open end. The substantially horizontal portion has a minimum thickness hat a location between the two adjacent ridges, h/h≥2.

Backlight with multiple microreplicated optical films

A backlight includes a plurality of discrete light sources configured to face a display, and an optical film disposed on the light sources and below and proximate a first plane. The optical film includes a plurality of through-holes extending between first and second major surfaces of the optical film. Each through-hole has a first opening at the first major surface, and a second opening at the second major surface with an open area A2. Each through-hole has length, H, such that H/A2 is greater than or equal to about 0.13. The light from the light sources has a first overall peak intensity in the first plane, and a first brightness uniformity across the first plane, and in the absence of the optical film, the light from the light sources has a second overall peak intensity in the first plane, and a second brightness uniformity across the first plane, such that the first and second overall peak intensities are different by less than about 20%, and the first brightness uniformity exhibits an improvement over the second brightness uniformity by at least 2.8%.

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Yamato, Japan

Sayaka Kado