ILLUMINATION DEVICE AND LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAY DEVICE

摘要

This object aims to provide an illumination device and a liquid crystal display device that are configured to realize thin thickness, high heat-resistance temperature and high light use efficiency. An illumination device (100) is provided with a backlight unit (110) that projects light including first and second polarization light components, the directions of which are cross at right angles with each other, and a selective reflection polarization light plates (wire grid) (120) in which reflectance of the first polarization light component is higher than transmittance of the first polarization light component and reflectance of the second polarization light component is higher than transmittance of the second polarization light component. The selective reflection polarization light plates (wire grid) (120) is comprised of a transparent substrate (122) and a plurality of metallic wires (124) disposed on the transparent substrate (122), wherein a ratio of a pitch of the metallic wires (124) to a width of the metallic wires (124) is larger than 30% but is equal to or less than 42%. Reflectance of the backlight unit (110) is equal to or more than 0.6. The illumination device is suitably applied to a liquid crystal display device. A liquid crystal display device (150) is provided with a liquid crystal panel (200) in addition to the illumination device (100).