Patent ID: 7918567

Claim:
A light emitting device comprising: at least one light emitting element having a light emitting part for emitting illumination light; a substrate to which the light emitting element is fixed; a spacer having a mirror surface for reflecting the illumination light emitted from the light emitting element; and at least one columnar light guide unit having an incident surface upon which the illumination light is incident, a total reflection surface for totally reflecting the illumination light coming from the incident surface, and an exit surface having an area larger than an area of the incident surface, the exit surface emitting the illumination light totally reflected at the total reflection surface, wherein the spacer includes an indentation open at least at a top thereof or an opening, the light emitting element is positioned with respect to a bottom surface of the indentation or the opening and a bottom surface of the spacer, the mirror surface is formed on the indentation or an inner side surface of the opening, the area of the opening at the top surface of the spacer is larger than a bottom surface area of the indentation or the area of the opening at the bottom surface of the spacer, the incident surface of the at least one columnar light guide unit is located in the indentation or on the spacer top surface at the opening, the indentation or the opening is filled with a transparent member, at least the light emitting unit of the light emitting element is shielded from air by the transparent member, and there is no air space between the incident surface and the transparent member, and the condition n 1 >m 1 >n 2 >m 2 is satisfied, where m 1 represents the area of the opening on the top surface of the spacer at the indentation or the opening, m 2 represents the bottom surface area of the indentation or the area of the opening at the bottom surface of the spacer, n 1 represents the area of the exit surface of the columnar light guide unit, and n 2 represents the area of the incident surface of the columnar light guide unit.