The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 10, 2001
Filed:
Jan. 29, 1999
Toshiyuki Yoshikawa, Tokyo, JP;
Osamu Shinji, Niigata, JP;
Toshitaka Kunisawa, Niigata, JP;
Kouzo Yasuda, Kashima-gun, JP;
Kuraray Co., Ltd., Kurashiki, JP;
Abstract
A transparent lightguide (,) which guide light at least from one side end plane is characterized in that a large number of speckled, solid-line shaped or broken-line shaped protruding patterns whose cross-sectional width W (&mgr;m) at a cross section perpendicular to the axis of a linear light source is 10≦W≦200 are arranged on a light emitting surface at a low density in a region close to the linear light source and at a high density in a region far from the linear light source so as to make the luminance distribution of the light emitted from the light emitting surface approximately uniform. Here, the cross section of the protruding pattern is preferable to be approximately trapezoidal while having a straight part partially and the ratio H/W to be 0.2≦H/W≦1.0, where W and H denote cross-sectional width and height of the protruding pattern, respectively, or the cross section of the protruding pattern is preferable to be approximately circular-arc and the ratio H/W to be 0.2≦H/W≦0.5, where W and H denote cross-sectional width and height of the protruding pattern, respectively.