Patent ID: 6741396
Filing Date: 2004-05-25
Classification: G02B,G03B,H04N

Abstract:
An optical unit comprising:a light source for emitting light therefrom; an image display element having a light valve in which said light emitted from said light source is formed into an optical image in accordance with a video signal supplied thereto; a light optical system for irradiating said light upon said image display element; and a projector for projecting light emitted from said image display element, wherein said light source has at least one reflection mirror, and an electrode wire provided at a lamp electrode within said reflection mirror, and said optical unit further comprises, a first array lens for condensing the light emitted from said light source and forming a plural number of secondary images of said light source; a second array lens, being disposed in a vicinity of the plural number of secondary images of said light source, for forming each lens image of said first array lens upon said image display element; and a polarized light converter for converting a random polarized light beam, which is emitted from said light source, to one of a S-polarized light beam, and wherein lens cells of said first lens array are arranged in a vertical direction or a horizontal direction, and the number of said lens cells in said vertical direction or horizontal direction is equal to or greater than (2b/a), where â€œaâ€  is a width of a belt-like shadow of the electrode wire and â€œbâ€  is either a vertical width or a horizontal width of one cell of said first array lens, and said first and second array lenses and said polarized light converter are arranged so that each optical axis is nearly coincident with one another.