Patent ID: 7251076

Claim:
An optical component comprising: a substrate; and at least one optical element obtained by processing an optical film, said film having a thickness between about 50 μm and 300 μm and being provided on the substrate, wherein the optical component has a plurality of surfaces substantially not parallel to a surface of the substrate, wherein the optical film consists of an optical anisotropic material having an optical axis normal to the surface of the substrate, and the optical element is a polarization splitting prism for splitting incident light into two orthogonal polarized light beams, and wherein light is reflected, refracted, diffracted, or transmitted by a surface of the optical element substantially perpendicular to the surface of the substrate, so that light propagating in a direction substantially parallel to the surface of the substrate is generated or an optical path of light propagating in a direction substantially parallel to the surface of the substrate is controlled, wherein the at least one optical element is a plurality of optical elements and at least one of the plurality of optical elements is said polarization splitting prism for splitting incident light into two orthogonal polarized light beams, and at least another one of the plurality of optical elements is a mirror for converting a propagation direction of light from a direction substantially normal to the surface of the substrate to a direction substantially parallel to the surface of the substrate, or vice versa.