Tapered Collimator Multiview Display Backlight
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Solution Overview
Problem
Passive electronic displays, which rely on external light sources for illumination, face limitations in practical applications due to their inability to emit light, necessitating the use of backlights to function as active displays.
Innovation Solution
A multiview display system employing a backlight with an angle-preserving scattering feature and a tapered collimator, which provides emitted light with multiple principal angular directions, enabling uniform spatio-angular illumination and facilitating the display of multiview images without the need for external light sources.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If passive displays are coupled to an external light source (backlight), then they can emit light and function as active displays, but they require additional components and external power sources
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the light source (LED) and the display panel into a single integrated structure. The LED layer is directly coupled to the microlens array and color filter layers, eliminating the need for a separate backlight unit. This integration allows the display to emit light while maintaining a compact, single-component structure.
Solution Approach 2:
Each pixel element generates its own light through the LED, making the display self-illuminating. The microlens array then directs this self-generated light through the color filters and out through the top surface, allowing each pixel to serve its own illumination needs without requiring external light sources.
2Adaptability or versatility
If a multiview display uses a tapered collimator with angle-preserving scattering, then it provides uniform spatio-angular illumination and enables glasses-free 3D, but it requires precise angular control of light beams
Solution Approach 1:
The microlens array is configured with locally optimized lens elements, each positioned and shaped to control the angular distribution of light for specific viewing directions. The tapered collimator structure also employs local geometric variations to achieve angle-preserving scattering, allowing precise angular control through localized structural features rather than global adjustments.
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 allows for the creation of a multiview display that can emit modulated light beams in various directions, providing a 'glasses-free' 3D representation of images, enhancing the functionality and application scope of passive displays.
Implementation Method 1
a tapered collimator configured to collimate light from the light source to provide substantially uniform spatio-angular illumination
Implementation Method 2
a light guide with an angle-preserving scattering feature configured to scatter a portion of the guided light out of the light guide as emitted light, the emitted light comprising a plurality of directional light beams having different principal angular directions
Data Source
AI summary
A backlight and a multiview display employ a light guide having angle-preserving scattering feature and a tapered collimator. The angle-preserving scattering feature is configured to scatter a portion of guided light out of the light guide as emitted light. The tapered collimator is configured to collimate light provided by a light source as collimated light and to communicate the collimated light to the light guide to be guided as the guided light. The collimated light has a collimation factor configured to provide a predetermined angular spread of the guided light, the collimation factor being a function of a taper of the tapered collimator. The multiview display includes multiview pixels that include view pixels as well as the angle-preserving scattering feature that includes a multibeam element having a size that is comparable to a size of a view pixel.