Patent ID: 7791675

Claim:
An optical device, comprising: a kernel, comprising: a prism assembly including a plurality of beam splitters and a plurality of processing faces, the prism assembly configured to separate an input light into a plurality of light beams each one of the plurality of light beams corresponding to and individually directed to one of the plurality of processing faces and recombine the plurality of light beams after modulation into an output light beam; a plurality of reflective microdisplays each one of the plurality of microdisplays individually mounted on a corresponding one of the plurality of processing faces and each microdisplay configured to modulate the light beam corresponding to the processing face on which the microdisplay is mounted; and at least one variable retarder including a variable retarder material disposed in at least one optical path of at least one of the plurality of light beams, such that the at least one of the plurality of light beam passes through the at least one variable retarder, wherein the at least one variable retarder includes two or more variable retarders disposed in the plurality of light beams and wherein a first variable retarder is adjusted to increase a lightpath length and a second variable retarder is adjusted to decrease a lightpath length.