Patent ID: 9016865
Filing Date: 2015-04-28
Classification: F21S,F21V,G02B,G03B,H04N

Abstract:
1. An illumination device comprising: a light source that emits a plurality of color light beams; an illumination optical system that spatially splits each of said plurality of color light beams emitted from said light source, superimposes the split light beams of each of said plurality of color light beams, and emits the superimposed light beams to a display element; a reflective polarization plate that is arranged between said illumination optical system and said display element and that transmits first polarized light and that reflects second polarized light whose polarization state is different from that of said first polarized light toward a said illumination optical system; a reflection element that is arranged at a position where each of said plurality of color light beams is spatially split by said illumination optical system and that transmits the split light beams of each of said color light beams and that reflects, of the split light beams of each of said color light beams that have been transmitted through said reflective polarization plate, each color light beam reflected by said reflective polarization plate toward said reflective polarization plate; and a phase plate arranged between said reflection element and said reflective polarization plate, wherein said reflection element includes: a first reflection member that transmits part of color light beams of said plurality of color light beams and that reflects other than the transmitted part of color light beams; and a second reflection member that reflects said part of color light beams and transmits other than said transmitted part of color light beams, wherein said light source includes: a first solid state light source having a peak wavelength in a red wavelength band; a second solid state light source having a peak wavelength in a green wavelength band; and a third solid state light source having a peak wavelength in a blue wavelength band, wherein said first reflection member transmits light of said green wavelength band and reflects light of said red and blue wavelength bands, and wherein said second reflection member reflects light of said green wavelength band and transmits light of said red and blue wavelength bands, and wherein said illumination optical system includes a light guide unit where said plurality of color light beams emitted from said light source are supplied to one end surface, and said plurality of color light beams that have entered from the one end surface are propagated inside to exit from the other end surface, wherein the one end surface of said light guide unit includes first to fourth regions segmented by a first straight line and a second straight line that pass through a median point of the one end surface and that are orthogonal to each other, wherein a green light beam emitted from said second solid state light source enters said first and second regions that are adjacent to each other via said first straight line represented as a boundary of said first and second regions, wherein a red light beam emitted from said first solid state light source enters said third region, wherein a blue light beam emitted from said third solid state light source enters said fourth region, and wherein said first and second reflection members are alternately arranged in a direction along said first straight line when viewed from a direction perpendicular to said first plane of said light guide unit.