TROUGH REFLECTOR AND LENS COUPLER FOR A LIGHTGUIDE ILLUMINATION SYSTEM

摘要

A lightguide illumination system is disclosed for providing more improved and efficient technology for capturing light from an extended light source (12) having a relatively high aspect ratio, and coupling that light into a plurality of lightguides (20). The inventive system functions by dividing the length of the extended lightsource (12) into shorter segments, so that the aspect ratio of the lightsource (12) can be more closely matched to the aspect ratio of the lightguide (20). In the preferred embodiment, a plurality of interleaved trough reflector segments (14) are employed to segment the length of the light source. This enables the coupling efficiency of the total system to be greatly improved.