ILLUMINATION SYSTEM FOR HARD COPY DEVICE

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To uniformly illuminate a slender DMD mirror array with strong light by mixing light from a slender array of a light-emitting device and by providing a slender spatial light modulator illuminated with the mixed light. SOLUTION: A system 10 comprises a slender array 12 of a light-emitting device 14 and the light output from each element 14 is completely mixed in a lateral direction by a light distributing device 16. The mixed light from the distributing device 16 is thereafter fed on a slender spatial light modulator 18. The spatial light modulator 18 modulates the incident light to form a light image and the light image is fed into a projecting lens 20. The projecting lens 20 focuses the image forming light from the spatial light modulator 18 onto an image plane 22 of a light exposure module. Lenses 26, 28 efficiently compress and focuse a slender light beam from the slender array 12 and image the light from the light-emitting device onto the spatial light modulator 18.