Patent ID: 8177369

Claim:
A reflective liquid crystal projector, comprising: a light source section having first, second and third lasers, each of which is formed from a semiconductor laser or a solid-state laser, and configured to emit laser light beams of red, green and blue, respectively; a reflective liquid crystal panel including a liquid crystal layer formed between an incoming and outgoing side substrate and a reflection side substrate and forming pixels for red, green and blue, a microlens array formed on said incoming and outgoing side substrate and comprised of a plurality of microlenses, and reflecting layers formed corresponding to the pixels on said reflection side substrate; a light beam diffusing and shaping optical device configured to diffuse and shape the laser light beams emitted from said light source section by diffraction or refraction of light such that the laser light beams are introduced to the corresponding pixels of said liquid crystal layer over all of an area of a display region of said reflective liquid crystal panel; a lens system configured to convert the laser light beams of the colors diffused and shaped by said light beam diffusing and shaping optical device into beams of substantially parallel light; an optical device configured to transmit or reflect the laser light beams of the colors converted into the beams of substantially parallel light by said lens system so as to introduce the laser light beams of the colors from said incoming and outgoing side substrate to said reflective liquid crystal panel and further introduce the laser light beams of the colors to said liquid crystal layer through said microlenses; and a projection lens configured to project the image light beams of the colors after (i) being transmitted through said liquid crystal layer, (ii) being reflected by said reflecting layers, (iii) being transmitted through said liquid crystal layer again, (iv) emerging from said incoming and outgoing side substrate through said microlenses and (v) being reflected by said optical device or transmitted through said optical device.