Patent ID: 8308307

Claim:
An illuminator comprising: a first light source and a second light source that are disposed substantially symmetrically with respect to an illumination optical axis; a light path changer configured to cause light fluxes having exited from the first and second light sources to translate toward the illumination optical axis, light exiting from the light path changer being parallel to the illumination optical axis; and a lens array integrator that receives the light exited from the light path changer, wherein each of the first and second light sources includes an arc tube, a first reflector disposed to surround part of the entire space around a lamp optical axis of the arc tube, the first reflector reflecting the light emitted from the arc tube toward an object to be illuminated, and a second reflector disposed on the opposite side of the lamp optical axis of the arc tube to the first reflector, the second reflector reflecting the light emitted from the arc tube toward the first reflector, the first reflector having a shape obtained by halving a reflector that covers the entire space around the lamp optical axis, the first reflector being disposed in such a way that the lamp optical axis coincides with a line of the halving, the illumination optical axis being in the center of the lamp optical axes of the arc tubes in the first and second light sources; and wherein the lamp optical axis of the first light source is substantially parallel to the lamp optical axis of the second light source.