Light engine with lenticular microlenslet arrays

US10088689B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC · US

Inventors

• Yarn Chee Poon · Redmond, US
• Steve Robbins · DeLand, US
• Angus Wu · Tucson, US
• Jeb Wu · Redmond, US
• James Randolph Webster · San Jose, US
• Richard Andrew Wall · Kirkland, US
• Richard A. James · Woodinville, US
• Robin Hsiung · Kaohsiung, TW
• RuPing Huang · Hsinchu, TW
• Freeway Lin · Hsinchu, TW

Key dates

• Filing date: Mar 13, 2015
• Grant date: Oct 2, 2018
• Expiry date: Mar 13, 2035

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G02B2027/0178
• WIPO field: Optics
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

An optical light engine includes a pair of lenticular microlenslet arrays (MLAs) located on each side of a polarization converter. Non-polarized light from a source in the engine is focused by the first MLA onto cells of the polarization converter which converts the light to a common state of polarization to increase efficiency and improve contrast in the system. A half wave retarder is included on the polarization converter to change the polarization of any light that is reflected from downstream optical components to match that of the forward propagating light. The second MLA, which includes a relatively large number of microlenslet elements, collects the light from the polarization converter and homogenizes the light to be highly uniform when received at a downstream imaging panel in the light engine such as a liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) panel.