Patent ID: 7416307

Claim:
An optical apparatus comprising: a light combining prism having three light incident faces, the light combining prism receiving three beams of light having different wavelength bands through the three light incident faces and combining the three incident beams of light for output; three reflection type liquid crystal panels; three plate-like reflection type polarization elements disposed corresponding to the three reflection type liquid crystal panels, each receiving a different wavelength band of light among the three different wavelength bands, each selecting a first polarized beam component and making the selected first polarized beam component strike the corresponding reflection type liquid crystal panel, and each providing modulated light spatially modulated and converted to a second polarized beam component at the reflection type liquid crystal panel to the corresponding incident face of the light combining prism; and at least three fixing plates having prism side faces, polarization side faces, and panel side faces, the fixing plates being fixed to the light incident faces of the light combining prism through the prism side faces, the reflection type polarization elements being fixed to the polarization side surfaces of the fixing plates, and the reflection type liquid crystal panels being fixed to the panel side faces of the fixing plates.