Patent ID: 8215776

Claim:
An illumination apparatus for forming, onto a linear array light modulator, a line of illumination that extends in a linear direction, the illumination apparatus comprising: a) a first laser array comprising a plurality of laser emitters for forming a first linear beam array and, spaced apart from the first laser array, a second laser array in a plane parallel to aplane of the first laser array comprising a plurality of laser emitters for forming a second linear beam array; b) an array combiner disposed to align at least the first linear beam array and the second linear beam array into a single multi-beam line in the linear direction and to direct the first and second linear beam arrays along a propagation path; c) at least first and second cylindrical lens elements having power in the linear direction and disposed to relay the single multi-beam line illumination from the propagation path toward the linear array light modulator; and d) at least third and fourth cylindrical lens elements having power in the cross-array direction that is orthogonal to the linear direction and disposed to focus the single multi-beam line illumination onto the linear array light modulator.