Patent ID: 7789515

Claim:
A projection display device for displaying an image, comprising: a) a screen having a front defined by where the image is viewed and a rear; b) a mirror opposing the rear of the screen and oriented at an acute angle with respect to the screen; c) a retarder disposed between the screen and the mirror; d) a wire-grid polarizer substantially contiguous with the screen and having an array of parallel conductive nano-wires with a period less than 200 nm; and e) an image projection engine oriented to direct a polarized image beam containing an image towards the wire-grid polarizer with the image beam having a linear polarization and an optical axis; and f) the polarized image beam of the linear polarization propagating in a plane oriented: i) to contain a nano-wire of the array and ii) with an incidence angle with respect to the array greater than 45 degrees and iii) not within a plane of incidence with respect to the array.