Patent ID: 7710669

Claim:
A multi-colored illumination system, comprising: n beam combiners for combining n+1 lights forming a combined beam, each light having different wavelengths, where n is greater than 2, each beam combiner comprising two triangular prisms, each surface of said two triangular prisms being polished, and a filter for transmitting said combined beam received from a previous beam combiner and reflecting a new light from said n+1 lights which has not been previously transmitted or reflected, said each beam combiner combining said transmitted combined beam and said reflected new light to provide a new combined beam to a next beam combiner if said each beam combiner is not the last beam combiner or output said new combined beam as an output beam if said each beam combiner is the last beam combiner; and a low index glue or air gap being provided between each of said beam combiners, thereby combining all of said lights without increasing etendue of said multi-colored illumination system.