Patent ID: 8033708

Claim:
An illumination device comprising: a light guide plate; a light source unit having a plurality of point like light sources for supplying light to the light guide plate and a light source holding member for holding the point like light sources, the light source unit being disposed to oppose an edge face of the light guide plate; a spacer at least one of formed from a portion of the light source unit or formed on the light source unit; and a housing for holding the light guide plate and the light source unit, wherein the light source unit is constituted so as to be inserted in and extracted from the housing by a slide mechanism that is adapted to be slid along the edge face of the light guide plate, and the spacer is for assuring a gap between the edge face of the light guide plate and the light sources at a slide insertion side end of the light source unit with respect to the housing when the light source unit is slidingly inserted in the housing.