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:
Jul. 11, 2006
Filed:
May. 13, 2004
Jun Ishihara, Kobe, JP;
Kohtaro Hayashi, Toyonaka, JP;
Yuichiro Ori, Moriyama, JP;
Minolta Co., Ltd., Osaka, JP;
Abstract
A thin and light optical device satisfactorily separates light components having different properties. A blazed grating is formed on a surface of a flat-plate-shaped transparent substrate, and a separation coating that reflects or transmits incident light according to the properties of the incident light is provided on the blazed grating. The thus obtained optical device offers a function of separating light into reflected light and transmitted light, and also has a function of diffracting or refracting the thus separated light. As the separation coating, a polarization separation film, dichroic film, angle separation film, or chiral nematic liquid crystal layer is used to separate linearly polarized light components having different polarization planes, light components having different wavelengths, light components incident at different angles of incidence, or circularly polarized light components having different rotation directions.