Patent ID: 7264358
Filing Date: 2007-09-04
Classification: G02B,G03B,H04N

Abstract:
1. An image display apparatus comprising: an image display element; an illumination optical system which illuminates an illumination surface of the image display element by using light from a light source; and a projection optical system which projects an image light from the image display element, wherein the illumination optical system comprises, a first optical system which has an optical power in a first plane including a normal to the illumination surface and guides the light from the light source to the illumination surface, and a polarization splitting surface which is inclined with respect to the normal, and reflects or transmits the light from the light source depending on the polarization direction of the light; wherein the first optical system comprises, an optical integrator which has a plurality of lenses with different optical powers in the first plane and a second plane including the normal and being perpendicular to the first plane, and a condenser lens which has an optical power in the first plane and guides the light emitted from the optical integrator to the illumination surface; wherein, in light intensity distribution of the light illuminating the illumination surface, which represents a relationship between incident angle and light intensity with respect to the illumination surface, a width of the incident angle at which the light intensity reaches half of a peak value in the first plane is larger than a width of the incident angle at which the light intensity reaches half of a peak value in the second plane; and wherein a normal to the polarization splitting surface is parallel to the second plane and is non-parallel to the first plane.