Patent ID: 8628206

Claim:
A night vision compatible backlight, comprising: a base layer; a spacer layer positioned on a surface of the base layer, the spacer layer defining a plurality of arrays of openings, each array of openings including a first set of openings and a second set of openings, the first set of openings and the second set of openings being alternately distributed along said array; a first set of light-emitting diode (LED) modules electronically connected to the base layer through the first set of openings of each array; a second set of LED modules electronically connected to the base layer through the second set of openings of each array; a filtering layer positioned on a surface of the spacer layer for providing infrared filtering for the second set of LED modules, the filtering layer further defining apertures generally coincide with the first set of openings of each array; and a diffusive reflector positioned on a surface of the filtering layer, the diffusive reflector defining apertures generally coincide with the first set of openings and the second set of openings of each array, wherein the first set of LED modules and the second set of LED modules are selectively energized for providing: a first mode where the first set of LED modules are energized, and a second mode where only the second set of LED modules are energized.