Patent ID: 7040794

Claim:
An improved lighting apparatus for backlighting a liquid crystal display, the lighting apparatus comprising: a. one or more light emitting diode arrays disposed on a plane perpendicular to the plane of the liquid crystal display, each light emitting diode array having a plurality of different groups of like colored light emitting diodes, each light emitting diode array including both red and non-red light emitting diodes; b. a switch coupled to the light emitting diode arrays in such a manner that the switch is operable to cause the red light emitting diode to switch on or off without causing the non-red light emitting diodes to switch on or off; c. light pipes parallel to the plane of the liquid crystal display for transmitting light from said light emitting diode arrays into the plane of said liquid crystal display for providing illumination thereof; and d. filters disposed between the arrays and the light pipes for filtering out infra-red light from the light emitting diodes.