Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi Displays, Ltd.

Panasonic Liquid Crystal Display Co., Ltd.

Shusuke Endo

Masaya Adachi

Ikuo Hiyama

Makoto Tsumura

Shunsuke Morishita

A light unit which includes a plurality of light-emitting diode (LED) light sources arranged in parallel, a light-guiding member arranged on said LED light sources, a light reflecting part for reflecting light from said LED light sources forward, a light diffusion part for outgoing light from the surface of said light-guiding member to outside, and an optical path changing part arranged above said light-diffusion part, wherein a side of said light-guiding member that faces said light diffusion part is flat.

Plane-like lighting units and display equipment provided therewith

The object of the present invention is to make parts and kinds of liquid crystal display devices in common for cope stably and flexibly with commercial products of computer makers and television makers which have been promoted in various kinds, for simplifying maintenance of a liquid crystal display unit mounted on computers, display monitors therefor or televisions, and preferably for enabling to omit positional adjustment of a light source unit and a liquid crystal display panel during the maintenance of the liquid crystal display device. For this object, the invention provides a liquid crystal display device comprising first, second, and third housings, a liquid crystal display panel fixed between the first and second housings, a light source (cold-cathode fluorescent tubes) fixed to the third housing, the second and third housings being detachable to one another, being constructed by overlapping the first, second and third housings with each other, wherein a timing-converter board fixed to an opposite side surface of the third housing to a side surface to which the light source is fixed, and protrusions formed on the opposite side surface so as to determine a maximum thickness of the liquid crystal display device.

Liquid crystal display device

A lighting unit having a plurality of light-emitting diode (LED) light sources arranged in parallel, a plurality of light-guiding members arranged along a direction wherein the LED light sources are arranged, a light reflecting part arranged on one side face of the light-guiding members, a light diffusion part arranged on an other side face of the light-guiding members, a light semi-transmitting reflection part arranged between the LED light source and the light diffusion part, and an optical path changing part arranged above the light-guiding members. A side of the light-guiding members that faces the light diffusion part is flat.

A lighting unit including a plurality of linear or bar-shaped light sources arranged in parallel, a light-guiding plate having a plurality of grooves to accommodate the light sources, a light diffuse reflector provided at either one side of the light-guiding plate, a first light diffuser provided at the side opposite to that which faces the light diffuse reflector of the light-guiding plate, and a light semi-transmitting reflector provided between each light source and the light diffuser. A second light diffuser is located with a clearance at the side opposite to that which faces the light-guiding plate of the first light diffuser.

A lighting unit is provided which comprises: a plurality of linear light sources arranged in parallel; light-guiding plates arranged along said light sources; light diffusion means arranged at the top of said light sources and light-guiding plates; and reflection means arranged at the bottom of the light sources; wherein said lighting unit is characterized in that the surface of each light-guiding plate is flat, in that the reverse side of the light-guiding plate includes an inclined face of a curvilinear shape that thins down as the inclined face is more distanced from the light source, and in that when a position relatively near the light source and a position relatively far from the light source, on the reverse side of the light-guiding plate, are inclined by &thgr;n1 and &thgr;f1, respectively, the relationship of &thgr;n1 &gE;&thgr;f1 is satisfied and the angle-of-inclination of the thinnest portion on the reverse side of the light-guiding plate is 0 degrees. With this arrangement, supply of a thin lighting unit that is high in luminance and in the in-plane uniformity of luminance can be obtained.

Growing community of inventors

Mobara, Japan

Shusuke Endo