Patent ID: 8297826

Claim:
A backlight unit, comprising: a substrate which has an elongated shape and a mounting surface; a plurality of dot light sources which arc mounted on the mounting surface of the substrate and arranged in a longitudinal direction of the substrate; and a light guide plate which has a plurality of elongated side surfaces and which is placed so that a predetermined side surface of the plurality of elongated side surfaces opposes the mounting surface of the substrate, the predetermined side surface serving as a light incident surface into which light from the plurality of dot light sources is introduced, wherein the plurality of dot light sources are classified into a first light source group and a second light source group, and a mount point of the first light source group and a mount point of the second light source group are displaced from each other in a thickness direction of the light guide plate, and wherein a total luminance of the first light source group is higher than a total luminance of the second light source group, in order that an amount of incident light is substantially the same from both the first light source group and the second light source group along the light incident surface for substantial uniformity.