Patent ID: 8116005

Claim:
A method, comprising: providing light from first and second light sources each producing light having a substantially separate spectrum; reflecting the light from the first light source by a dichroic filter that passes the light from the second light source; and reflecting the light from the second light source by a reflective surface, wherein the reflective surface has a non-zero angle to the dichroic filter, the angle between the reflective surface and the dichroic filter causing the reflected light from the first light source and the reflected light from the second light source to be combined along a common light path; wherein the first and second light sources are adjacent first and second LED light sources, laterally spaced in a linear array along a Cartesian Z-axis direction and producing light of respective different colors; and wherein light from the first LED light source is incident on the dichroic filter along a first optical axis aligned with a Cartesian coordinate X-axis, light from the second LED light source is incident on the reflective surface along a second optical axis offset by an angle δ 1 from the X-axis, the dichroic filter is tilted about a Cartesian coordinate Y-axis by an angle Ω 0 from the X-axis, and the reflective surface is tilted about the Y-axis by an angle Ω 1 =Ω 0 −δ 1 /2 from the X-axis, such that substantially all light from the first and second LED light sources is spatially and angularly coincident after being reflected off the dichroic filter and the reflective surface.