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:
Oct. 15, 2002
Filed:
Jul. 21, 2000
Thomas V. Gunn, Candia, NH (US);
Wesley H. Halstead, Sammamish, WA (US);
Bae Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration Inc., Nashua, NH (US);
Abstract
A collimator is provided to collimate light from a lambertian light source in which light from a fluorescent lamp is reflected towards an exit slit and in which light which leaves the slit at 180 degrees and is collimated in one direction to +/−1/2 degree. The collimator is utilized in one application to maximize the diffraction efficiency of a diffractive color separator microlens array to increase the brightness of a color liquid crystal display and to increase color saturation. In order to provide collimation, the light exiting the exit slit is collimated by parabolic surfaces of an optical waveguide to provide a beam which has a collimation of +/−3 degrees in one direction. This light in one embodiment is spread out by a reflective array and is further collimated by a cylindrical lens array so that it exits a panel with the required +/−1/2 degree collimation.