Diagonal Color Wheel for Laser Projector Brightness
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current light source systems for projectors, relying on a blue solid-state light-emitting element with a fluorescent color wheel, face limitations in achieving high light saturation, particularly in generating red light efficiently, leading to suboptimal brightness and color performance.
Innovation Solution
A color wheel design featuring diagonally distributed translucent and fluorescent regions, combined with a laser light source system that includes a dichroic mirror group and a red light filter, allows for efficient generation and separation of primary colors, ensuring that green light passes through translucent regions and yellow light is filtered to produce red light, thereby enhancing light saturation and brightness.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If a blue solid-state light-emitting element with fluorescent color wheel is used, then luminous efficiency is improved, but light saturation and brightness are insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The color wheel is divided into multiple independent fluorescent regions (yellow, green, red fluorescent materials) and translucent regions, allowing selective excitation and emission of different wavelengths. This segmentation enables efficient conversion of blue light into multiple primary colors while maintaining high luminous efficiency and improving overall brightness through optimized light path management.
Solution Approach 2:
The color wheel employs composite fluorescent materials including yellow fluorescent material (Y3Al5O12:Ce), green fluorescent material (β-SiAlON:Eu), and red fluorescent material (CaAlSiN3:Eu), each with specific optical properties. These composite materials work together to convert blue light into a full-spectrum output with high efficiency and improved saturation, resolving the contradiction between luminous efficiency and brightness.
2Manufacturing precision
If a red light filter is used to generate red light, then light saturation is improved, but green light energy is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the green light component through dedicated green translucent regions and green dichroic mirrors that separate and direct green light into specific optical paths. This extraction prevents green light from being filtered out by red light filters, maintaining green light energy while still achieving high red light saturation through the red fluorescent material and red light filter combination.
Solution Approach 2:
Green dichroic mirrors act as intermediaries that selectively reflect green light while transmitting other wavelengths. These mirrors mediate between the blue light source and the final output, directing green light through appropriate optical paths and preventing energy loss that would occur with simple filtering approaches.
3Device complexity
If a single color wheel is used, then device complexity is reduced, but brightness improvement is limited to 9.5%
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple fluorescent materials (yellow, green, red) and translucent regions into a single integrated color wheel structure. This unified design combines the functions of multiple separate components while maintaining optimal optical paths for each wavelength, achieving significant brightness improvement without proportionally increasing device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The color wheel utilizes angular/directional arrangement of different fluorescent and translucent regions around the central blue light source. This spatial dimensionality allows simultaneous optimization of multiple optical paths and wavelength separations within a single component, achieving high brightness without linearly increasing structural complexity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution enables efficient generation of primary colors, effectively preserving green light energy and improving brightness and color saturation by optimizing the interaction between the color wheel, dichroic mirrors, and red light filter in the laser light source system.
Implementation Method 1
an outer ring, including fluorescent regions and a translucent region, the fluorescent regions including green fluorescent regions and yellow fluorescent regions
Implementation Method 2
the first dichroic mirror reflects a blue light and transmits a yellow light and a green light; the second dichroic mirror reflects a green light and transmits a blue light
Implementation Method 3
a red light filter positioned between the third dichroic mirror and the fourth dichroic mirror; the yellow light generated in the yellow fluorescent regions is projected to a red light filter after being reflected
Data Source
AI summary
A color wheel includes an inner ring, including translucent regions which are diagonally distributed; and an outer ring, including fluorescent regions and a translucent region, the fluorescent regions including green fluorescent regions and yellow fluorescent regions, the green fluorescent regions being diagonally distributed; wherein, the angles of the translucent regions of the inner ring are greater than or equal to the angles of the green fluorescent regions of the outer ring, the angle extension lines of the ring-shaped green fluorescent regions passing through the center of a circle fall within the ring-shaped translucent regions of the inner ring, such that the green light generated in the green fluorescent regions passes through the translucent regions after being reflected, and the yellow light generated in the yellow fluorescent regions is projected to a red light filter after being reflected.