Patent ID: 7204594

Claim:
A projector, comprising: an illumination device provided with: a light source device that emits a substantially parallel luminous flux to a side of a region to be illuminated; a first lens array including a plurality of first small lenses that divide the luminous flux coming from the light source device into a plurality of partial luminous fluxes; a second lens array including a plurality of second small lenses corresponding to the plurality of first small lenses of the first lens array; and a superimposing lens that superimposes, in the region to be illuminated, the partial luminous fluxes coming from the plurality of second small lenses of the second lens array, an electro-optic modulator that modulates the luminous flux coming from the illumination device in accordance with image information, each first small lens in the first lens array has a plane shape compressed in a direction which is either vertical or horizontal direction of the image formation region of the electro-optic modulator to make the luminous flux coming from the illumination device entirely illuminate an image formation region of the electro-optic modulator in the other direction thereof, and partially illuminate the image formation region in the one direction; a light shielding member that is disposed between the illumination device and the electro-optic modulator to be substantially optically conjugate with the plurality of first small lenses and the electro-optic modulator for adjusting the cross section shape of the luminous flux; and a rotating prism that is disposed on a side of the electro-optic modulator of the light shielding member for scanning, on the image formation region of the electro-optic modulator, the luminous flux coming from the light shielding member along the one direction in synchronization with a frame rate of the electro-optic modulator, a stray light elimination member provided with the light shielding member that reflects a reflection light from a light incident surface of the rotating prism in a direction different from the rotating prism; and a projection optical system that projects a light modulated by the electro-optic modulator.