Patent ID: 7375896

Claim:
A beam splitter module used in conjunction with a rod integrator and an optical combiner module having a combiner and a plurality of prisms, the beam splitter module comprising: a beam splitter element for splitting a light beam that exits the rod integrator, the light beam exiting the rod integrator having a first cross section that defines a first length and a first width, the first length being greater than the first width, the light beam being split into a plurality of colour lights for exiting the splitter module, each one of the plurality of colour lights entering a respective one of the plurality of prisms of the optical combiner module, each colour light exiting the beam splitter module having at least one polarized light, and each colour light during light combining in the optical combiner module having at least one polarized light, wherein the light beam exits the optical combiner module after combining by the optical combiner having a second cross section that defines a second length and a second width, the second length being greater than the second width, the second length being at a right angle relative to the orientation of the first length of the first cross section, the splitting of the light beam occuring vertically while the light combining occurs horizontally, so that the polarization direction of each polarized light of the respective colour light split by the beam splitter module is equal to that of each respective polarized light of said colour light during light combining in the optical combiner module.