Patent ID: 7229199

Claim:
A lighting apparatus for providing illumination, comprising: a) an array of surface-emitting light sources, wherein each surface-emitting light source directs a source illumination beam, over a beam angle θ, toward an illumination plane; b) an array of beam spreading optical elements corresponding with the array of surface-emitting light sources, wherein refraction of the source illumination beam by each beam spreading optical element substantially satisfies a distribution function: ⅆ y ⅆ θ = f ⁡ ( θ ) wherein y is a radial distance along the illumination plane from the optical axis of the beam-spreading optical element, dy is an arbitrarily small increment of the radial distance, dθ is the angular increment of the beam angle corresponding to dy, and ƒ(θ) is the distribution function for the angular distribution of the light source, such that each beam spreading optical element adjusts the luminous intensity of the source illumination beam from the corresponding surface-emitting light source to provide a uniformized illumination beam directed toward the illumination plane; and, c) an array of beam-divergence reducing lens elements, wherein each beam-divergence reducing lens element reduces the angular divergence of a corresponding uniformized illumination beam, providing illumination having improved uniformity and reduced beam divergence thereby.