208results about How to "Light utilization efficiency" patented technology

A light source device which employs a plurality of light emitting diodes for emitting different colors of light, and a projection display which incorporates the light source device provide for a good white balance and a high light utilization efficiency in consideration of light emission efficiencies inherent to the respective color light emitting diodes. An illumination beam from each of light emission boards is converted to one type of polarized light respectively by associated polarized light forming means, and resulting polarized light beams are combined by a polarizing beam splitter to produce an illumination beam for illuminating a two-dimensional image device which may comprise a digital mirror device (DMD). The light emitting diodes in the respective colors are arranged on respective light emission boards in a predetermined ratio of distribution to optimize the white balance.

A front light includes: a light source, a light guide plate, and a plurality of prism-shaped lenses, each being in contact with a lower surface of the light guide plate. A cross-section of each of the prism-shaped lenses, in a plane perpendicular to the side surfaces thereof, has a shape of equally-sided trapezoid. An obtuse angle Φout of the equally-sided trapezoidal cross-section and a critical angle θc for the total reflection of the prism-shaped lenses satisfy the relationship of 90°<Φ out≦90°+θc. When the light emitted from the light source enters the prism-shaped lens, the light is allowed to be reflected at a side surface defined by side-edges of the trapezoidal cross-section and thereafter exit through a lower surface. Thus, the light can illuminate pixel electrodes in a liquid crystal panel from a direction normal thereto.

A photoacoustic apparatus obtains information on a specimen by receiving photoacoustic waves which are generated from the specimen resulting from light irradiated to the specimen. The apparatus includes a light source for irradiating light to the specimen, an acoustic wave receiver for receiving the photoacoustic waves, and a light reflection member for causing the light, which is radiated out of the specimen by optical diffusion thereof after having entered an interior of the specimen from the light source, to reenter the interior of the specimen, wherein the light reflection member allows elastic waves to pass therethrough. As a result, a photoacoustic apparatus and a probe are provided which can confine scattered light from the specimen into the specimen, and which can reliably prevent photoacoustic waves from being generated from a receiving element region of the probe by the scattered light.

A liquid crystal display device of the present invention is a liquid crystal display device having a first substrate, a second substrate, a liquid crystal layer disposed between the first and second substrates, and a plurality of pixels each having a display region, in that: the liquid crystal layer is optically isotropic when an selective electric field is not applied and optically aisotropic when an electric field is applied and includes a material whose refractive index changes depending on the strength of the electric field; and the plurality of pixels include first and second pixels different in the electric field strength.

A light guide plate that is divided into an effective section capable of providing uniform surface illumination and a transitional section between the effective section and the point light source includes a light-receiving surface, a light-emitting surface, a light-reflecting surface, and a plurality of light-diffusing structures. The light-diffusing structures are spread on the transitional section, and each light-diffusing structure is in the shape of a part elliptic cylinder having a long axis and a short axis and the front surface of the light-diffusing structure facing the point light source is a part elliptic cylindrical surface.

The present invention is directed to a transmission type laminated hologram optical element constituting an image display apparatus, wherein plural transmission type hologram optical elements (13), (14), (15) where diffraction acceptance incident angles are different from each other are laminated. The respective transmission type hologram optical elements are adapted so that outgoing angles with respect to center incident angles of respective diffraction acceptance incident angles at an arbitrary wavelength of the visible region are different from each other, whereby a diffraction acceptance angle of incident light can be broadened, light utilization efficiency is permitted to be high, and distance with respect to color pixels of the spatial light modulation element can be optimally set from viewpoints of light utilization efficiency.

A recess portion is formed in a substrate to accommodate a light emitting element so as to be sealed with a sealant. A light guide layer formed of a thin transparent resin film is fixed onto the substrate via an adhesive layer to realize an illuminating device with a thin structure. The light emitted from the light emitting element is irradiated into the light guide layer via the sealant and the adhesive layer. The light fully reflecting on the boundary surfaces between the light guide layer and the adhesive layer, and between the light guide layer and the air layer passes inside the light guide layer. Then the light which has not fully reflected leaks outside from the surface of the transparent resin film which forms the light guide layer. This makes it possible to illuminate the surface of the illumination device 1A entirely with brightness.

A liquid crystal display (LCD) device, with an organic electroluminescent display (OLED) element serving as a light source, a common electrode, and a polarizer which is a wire grid polarizer or a thin film polarizer are formed on a lower substrate. A pixel electrode is formed on an upper substrate. According to the invention, a thinner integrated LCD device with improved light utilization efficiency is obtained.

A system and methods for enhancing mass production of algae, diatoms or other photosynthetic organism is described. The system and methods are useful in applications such as energy production, fuels, foods, pharmaceuticals, plastics, and CO2 fixation. The system and methods involve the use of a submersed rotating pole(s) on which lights are branched out at strategic intervals in order to appropriately increase contact between photosynthetic water-based organisms and light. Rotation can timed so as to disperse light and / or nutrients when the organism is in a receiving mode. A process flow system is also described which can be scaled for the mass production of photosynthetic based organism. This process system makes use of centralized automatable controls and linear or parallel growth tanks. The system can be used for continuous or batch methods of production of bio-mass whose values such as lipids or carbohydrate can be extracted for the production of fuels or other byproducts.

A backlight module includes a light guide plate, a bar member, and two point light sources. The bar member is connected to one side of the light guide plate with a slot being formed between them. The bar member has a light emitting surface facing the light receiving surface of the light guide plate and a light reflecting surface opposite to the light emitting surface, and the light emitting surface and the light receiving surface are spaced apart from each other by the slot. The light receiving surface of the light guide plate and the light emitting surface of the bar member are both bent toward or away from the light reflecting surface.

A light source device and an image display apparatus include a Blue Laser Diode (B-LD) light source unit, a dichroic mirror to reflect substantially collimated Blue (B) light from the B-LD light source unit, a lens to focus the B light reflected by the dichroic mirror, and a color wheel comprising a Green (G) fluorescent section which is excited by the collimated B light to emit and to reflect G light and a B mirror reflector to mirror-reflect the B light, wherein a center of a light flux of the B light reflected by the dichroic mirror is on other than an optical axis of the lens.

A view angle controlling sheet to be disposed between the light source and the liquid crystal panel of a liquid crystal display apparatus, wherein the view angle controlling sheet has lens parts having a trapezoidal cross sectional shape arranged by a predetermined interval and the wedge parts between the adjacent lens parts is filled with a light absorbing material such that the wedge part has the top end disposed to the observer side and the bottom surface to the light source side and a light reflection layer provided to at least the bottom surface part on the light source side of the wedge part and with the premise that the angle formed by the slant face portion of the wedge part and the normal of the light output plane is θ, θ is in a range of 3°≦θ≦15°.

The present invention provides display with high light utilization efficiency, with increased luminance being provided in desired directions.A liquid crystal display device of the present invention has a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix along a first direction and a second direction which are perpendicular to each other, and includes: a TFT substrate; a counter substrate; a liquid crystal layer interposed between the TFT substrate and the counter substrate; an optical film including a polarizer provided on a surface of the TFT substrate which is opposite to the liquid crystal layer; and a backlight provided on a side of the optical film which is opposite to the TFT substrate, wherein the backlight includes an optical element layer provided on a side of the light guide plate which is closer to the optical film, and the optical element layer includes a plurality of lenticular lenses extending in the first direction, each of the lenticular lenses having a light receiving surface protruding toward the light guide plate.

There are provided optical members having a microlens array structure that can be produced by a more simple process, as well as devices employing them. The optical members have on one main surface a microlens array formed using a replication process that employs a mold comprising a plurality of gas bubbles arranged on a replication surface. There are also provided devices that employ the optical members.

A vehicle lighting unit can include a first reflector surface and a second reflector surface disposed vertically with the optical axis of an LED light source interposed therebetween. The first reflecting surface and the second reflecting surface can form respective light distribution patterns. The first reflecting surface can include an edge near the projection lens formed in a substantially elliptic shape and designed so as to take an aberration of the projection lens into consideration. The edge can be disposed so as to coincide with a focus group of the projection lens. The second reflecting surface can be formed to have a substantially conical curved surface or a curved surface having at least a part of a cross section of a substantially conical curved surface. Direct light emitted from the LED light source and passing through / between the first reflecting surface and the second reflecting surface can form a light distribution pattern.

The invention provides a compact, thin, and lightweight lighting system and projector. A lighting system included in a projector according to the present invention is provided with an LED array having LEDs and a reflective plate at the rear side of the LEDs in the light emitting direction, retardation films, a taper rod lens array, a rod lens array, and a reflective polarizing plate.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a dye-sensitized solar cell including a first base member having a first light-transmitting substrate, a light-transmitting conductive layer formed on a surface of the first substrate, a first semiconductor electrode containing a sensitizing dye and arranged on a surface of the conductive layer, a second semiconductor electrode containing a sensitizing dye and arranged with a first surface thereof facing the first semiconductor electrode, a first collector electrode formed on a second surface of the second semiconductor electrode and an electrolyte layer arranged between the first and second semiconductor electrodes, a porous insulating layer arranged in contact with the second semiconductor electrode and the first collector electrode or with the first collector electrode, and a second base member having a second substrate and a catalyst layer formed on a surface of the second substrate and facing the porous insulating layer. With such two semiconductor electrodes provided in the dye-sensitized solar cell, it is possible to allow highly efficient utilization of irradiation light and thereby obtain improved photoelectric conversion efficiency.

A liquid crystal display device has: a light source, a light guide plate for causing light from the light source to enter from a side surface of the light guide plate and exit as illuminating light from one principal surface thereof; a liquid crystal panel which includes a reflective color filter having wavelength selectivity in transmittance and reflectance and a polarizing plate disposed on a side that is closer to the light guide plate than the reflective color filter, and which is disposed on a light path of the illuminating light; and a recycle part for reflecting the illuminating light that has been reflected by the reflective color filter toward the reflective color filter once again, wherein the light from the light source is configured to enter the light guide plate as approximately linear polarization, and the polarizing plate of the liquid crystal panel is configured so exhibit transmittance of 90% or higher.

A color display apparatus is of the type wherein a unit pixel is constituted by at least three subpixels including first to third subpixels, and at each subpixel, a medium for changing an optical property depending on a voltage applied thereto is disposed. The color display apparatus includes means for applying a voltage, to each of the first to third subpixels, for changing the optical property of the medium within a brightness change range in which light passing through the medium is changed in brightness and a hue change range in which the light passing through the medium assumes chromatic color and a hue of the chromatic color is changed while including combinations of red and green, red and blue, and green and blue for the first to third subpixels, respectively.

A liquid crystal display device in which: there are provided lenticular lenses 1 and color separation filters, associated with a subpixel row direction, on the backlight 59 side with respect to lenticular lenses 1; and there are arranged, in a RGW row, a color separation filter 19B reflecting B wavelengths, and in a GBW row, a color separation filter 19R reflecting R wavelengths; wherein, together with collecting light in transmissive aperture parts 15 with lenticular lenses 1 and improving the transmitted quantity of light, the light reflected by color separation filters 19 is returned to backlight 59 and reutilized.

An electric field that is parallel with a TFT substrate is formed by a pair of electrodes formed on the TFT substrate. Liquid crystal molecules in a light modulating layer are caused to respond electro-optically to the electric field. The light modulating layer is constituted of a liquid crystal material, an optically active substance, and a dichroic dye. The spiral pitch p [μm] of the light modulating layer, the cell thickness d [μm], the twist angle n of liquid crystal molecules, and the interelectrode interval L [μm] are set in ranges of 1≦p≦15, 1≦d≦10, n≦300°, and L<25.

A light guide plate (20) has a light incidence surface (221) for receiving light, a light emitting surface (223) for emitting light, and a bottom surface (222). The light emitting surface has a plurality of diffraction grating units. Each diffraction grating unit has a strong diffractive portion and a weak diffractive portion. In each diffraction grating unit, grating directions of the strong and weak diffractive portions are orthogonal to each other. Area ratios of the strong diffractive portions in the diffraction grating units progressively increase with increasing distance away from the light incidence surface. The grating directions of the strong diffractive portions may vary according to the locations of the diffraction grating units relative to a light source. These features improve the overall efficiency of utilization of light, and enable the light emitting surface to output highly uniform light.

A color separation device changes a light path according to the wavelengths of incident light and an image sensor has improved light utilization efficiency by using the color separation device. The color separation device may include a first element having a first refractive index that varies according to wavelengths of light along a first refractive index distribution curve, and a second element having a second refractive index that varies according to wavelengths of light along a second refractive index distribution curve, the second refractive index distribution curve being different from the first refractive index distribution curve. The color separation device may be manufactured by simply joining two elements, namely, the first and second elements, together and thus may be more easily manufactured and perform more effective color separation.

A projection apparatus for providing multiple viewing angle images is disclosed. The projection apparatus includes a light source module, a polarizing light splitting element, a first and a second reflective light valve and a light combining element. The polarizing light splitting element has a light incident surface, a first light exiting surface and a second light exiting surface. The light incident surface optically couples with the light source module, while the first and the second light exiting surfaces optically couple with the first and the second reflective light valves respectively. The light combining element optically couples to the reflective light valves. Further, the light source module sequentially provides a first light beam and a second light beam. The light beams are transferred via the polarizing light splitting element, the reflective light valves and the light combining element to provide at least four viewing angle images to the viewers.

Provided is a measuring device which has a focusing unit for focusing light flux from a light source and irradiating it to a magnetic substance to be measured, a half-turn asymmetric element acting only on the light flux reflected by the magnetic substance to be measured and acting in such a manner that its action on polarization distribution in a cross section of the light flux has asymmetry nature about half-turn around an optical axis in order to obtain sensitivity to in-plane magnetization vector components of the magnetic substance to be measured, and a polarization split detector for detecting a light amount of a polarization component in one direction or separated each component of polarization components orthogonal to each other of the light which receives action of the half-turn asymmetric element so that the in-plane magnetization vector component in one direction can be measured separately from other components.

An optical pickup apparatus comprises: a first light source for emitting a first light flux; a second light source for emitting a second light flux; a third light source for emitting a third light flux; and an objective optical element. The objective optical element comprises an optical surface comprising a central area and a peripheral area. The central area comprises a first optical path difference providing structure, and the peripheral area comprises a second optical path difference providing structure. The objective optical element converges the third light flux which passes through the central area of on the third optical disk. The objective optical element converges the first and second light fluxes which pass through the peripheral area on the first optical disk. Each of the first and second optical path difference providing structures comprises a predetermined basic structure.

A light guide plate (20) has a light incidence surface (221) for receiving light, a light emitting surface (223) for emitting light, and a bottom surface (222). The light emitting surface has a plurality of diffraction grating units. Each diffraction grating unit has a strong diffractive portion and a weak diffractive portion. In each diffraction grating unit, grating directions of the strong and weak diffractive portions are orthogonal to each other. Area ratios of the strong diffractive portions in the diffraction grating units progressively increase with increasing distance away from the light incidence surface. The grating directions of the strong diffractive portions may vary according to the locations of the diffraction grating units relative to a light source. These features improve the overall efficiency of utilization of light, and enable the light emitting surface to output highly uniform light.

Sufficiently sharp directivity can be secured with a simple configuration in a configuration that improves the efficiency of utilizing the light exiting from a primary light source using a reflective polarizing plate. A backlight unit (2) supplies light exiting from an exit surface of a light guide plate (12) to a liquid-crystal display panel (3) via a reflective polarizing plate (16) after correcting directivity of the exiting light using a prism sheet (14) having a downwardly convex shape. A ¼-wavelength plate (15) is provided between the prism sheet (14) and the reflective polarizing plate (16), between the prism sheet (14) and the light guide plate, or between the light guide plate and a reflective sheet disposed on a surface of the light guide plate opposite to the prism sheet (14).

A wavelength conversion and filtering module that includes a plurality of optical regions is provided. The optical regions are adapted to move, and at least one of the optical regions includes a reflection unit, a wavelength conversion unit, a prism sheet, and a filter unit. The wavelength conversion unit is located between the reflection unit and the prism sheet. The prism sheet is located between the wavelength conversion unit and the filter unit. A light source system is also provided.