Patent ID: 7216988

Claim:
An optical device having a light modulation device, the optical device comprising: a light source emitting a luminous flux; a light modulation element to modulate the luminous flux emitted from the light source according to image information and to form an optical image; a support frame having an aperture suited for an image-forming region of the light modulation element, the support frame holding the light modulation element; a coolant to cool the light modulation element; the light modulation device being formed with an aperture suited for the image-forming region of the light modulation device, at at least one of a luminous-flux incident side and luminous-flux exiting side of the light modulation device, the light modulation device having a container-like coolant enclosure that seals the coolant; and a coolant enclosure having a first cooling chamber that hermetically seals the coolant in a space including the aperture, and having a second cooling chamber formed in a position avoiding the aperture and partitioned from the first cooling chamber to allow another coolant to flow therein, the another coolant introduced from an exterior of the coolant enclosure.