Patent ID: 8902485

Claim:
A contrast enhancing system comprising: a digital micromirror device (DMD) comprising a plurality of micromirrors and a tilt axis, the micromirrors enabled to pivot along the tilt axis between an on-state position, a flat-state position, and an off-state position; a light source; a first integrator enabled to receive light from the light source, the first integrator comprising a lateral long dimension and a lateral short dimension, the lateral short dimension at a non-zero angle to the tilt axis of the DMD; a second integrator enabled to receive light from the first integrator, and shape the light into a similar shape as the DMD; a telecentric lens about midway between the first integrator and the second integrator, the telecentric lens enabled to: convey the light from the first integrator to the second integrator; and generate a fast f-number direction and a slow f-number direction of the light in angle space, the fast f-number direction and the slow f-number direction respectively corresponding to the lateral long dimension and lateral short dimension of the first integrator, the slow f-number direction correspondingly at the non-zero angle to the tilt axis, thereby increasing dead-zones between adjacent ones of an illumination path of the light as it impinges on the DMD and reflection paths of the light as it reflects from the micromirrors in each of the on-state position, the flat-state position, and the off-state position; and, at least one optical component enabled to focus the light along the illumination path from the second integrator onto the DMD.