Patent ID: 7355798

Claim:
An optical system for efficiently collimating elliptical light beams, comprising: a light source, for providing an elliptical light beam defining different diverging angles in different directions, wherein any cross-section of the elliptical light beam emitted from the light source defines a long axis and a short axis which are perpendicular to each other; a collimator, for converting the diverging elliptical light outputted from the light source into a parallel elliptical light beam; and at least two prisms, adapted for narrowing the long axis of the parallel elliptical light beam and maintaining the short axis of the parallel elliptical light beam unchanged, each of the at least two prisms having a first surface and a second surface defining an acute angle, wherein the first surface is perpendicular to the parallel elliptical light beam, so as to allow the parallel elliptical light beam to perpendicularly pass through the first surface and be refracted out from the second surface, and the at least two prisms include a first prism and a second prism successively arranged along a transmitting direction of the elliptical light beam emitted from the light source, and the elliptical light beam passes through the first prism and is refracted out from the second surface of the first prism and then perpendicularly reaches the first surface of the second prism.