Patent ID: 6601958
Filing Date: 2003-08-05
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
A projector, comprising:an illumination device including a light beam dividing optical element, that divides a light beam into a plurality of sub light beams, and that forms a plurality of light source images from said plurality of the sub light beams; an electro-optical device that modulates an illumination light beam emitted by said illumination device; a projection lens that projects the light beam modulated by said electro-optical device; and a polarization separation film that selects a light beam of a predetermined polarization component included in said illumination light beam to emit the selected light beam of the predetermined polarization component to said electro-optical device, and that selects a light beam of a predetermined polarization component from the light beam modulated by said electro-optical device to emit the selected light beam to said projection lens, said light beam dividing optical element being a rod-like light guide having an incidence end surface, an exit end surface, and at least four reflective surfaces, and satisfying: SY/SXâ€ƒwhere: MX is a length of said incidence end surface in the X-direction, MY is a length of said incidence end surface in the Y-direction, SX is a placement interval of said plurality of the light source images in the X-direction, and SY is a placement interval of said plurality of the light source images in the Y-direction, â€ƒwhen: an incident plane is a plane defined by a center axis of said illumination light beam and a normal to said polarization separation film, a direction parallel to said incident plane and perpendicular to an illumination optical axis is an X-direction, and a direction perpendicular to said incident plane is a Y-direction.