Patent ID: 9033511
Filing Date: 2015-05-19
Classification: G02B,G02F,G03B,H04N

Abstract:
1. An illumination device comprising: a light source; a light guiding unit where light from the light source is supplied to an end surface, and light incident from the end surface is propagated inside to exit from the other end surface; an illuminating optical system that spatially separates a luminous flux output from the other end surface of the light guiding unit into a plurality of luminous fluxes and that forms, on a display element, an optical image that is formed on the other end surface of the light guiding unit; a reflective polarizing plate that is located between the illuminating optical system and the display element and that transmits first polarized light while reflecting second polarized light different in polarized state from the first polarized light toward the illuminating optical system; a reflecting element that is disposed at a position where the plurality of luminous fluxes are spatially separated and that reflects light reflected by the reflective polarizing plate toward the reflective polarizing plate; and a phase plate that is located between the reflecting element and the reflective polarizing plate, wherein the reflecting element includes a transmission region through which the plurality of luminous fluxes are transmitted, and a reflecting film that is formed in a region other than the transmission region; a light emitting center of the light source is located on a center axis that passes through a center of gravity of both end surfaces of the light guiding unit; and the illuminating optical system forms, on the reflecting film, a plurality of optical images that is formed on the reflective polarizing plate by the second polarized light of the plurality of luminous fluxes that passed through the transmission region.