Patent ID: 8111446

Claim:
A display device comprising: a reflecting light-modulating array comprising a plurality of light-modulating elements arranged in an array, said light-modulating elements including first and second optical surfaces, the second optical surface movable with respect to the first optical surface, the reflecting light-modulating a front side from which a viewer can view an image produced by the modulation of light; and a diffuser element having forward and rearward surfaces and a plurality of edges therebetween, said diffuser element being disposed forward of the array such that said forward and rearward surface of the diffuser element are parallel to said array and the forward surface of the diffuser element is farther from the light-modulating array than said rearward surface is from the light-modulating array, the diffuser element being configured to collimate light incident on the forward surface of the diffuser element and direct the collimated light out the rearward surface of the diffuser element to the light-modulating elements, wherein said diffuser element is arranged across the front side of the light-modulating array such that the light reflected from the light-modulating array is received by the rearward surface of the diffuser element and propagated out the forward surface of the diffuser element towards the viewer such that a viewer can view the image through the forward surface of the diffuser element.