HIGH EFFICIENCY OPTICAL SYSTEM FOR THREE-COLOR LIQUID CRYSTAL LIGHT VALVE IMAGE PROJECTION WITH COLOR SELECTIVE PREPOLARIZATION

摘要

A full color high contrast image projection system with oil coupled dichroics is disclosed. The preferred embodiment includes a unitary optical tank in which a prepolarizer and dichroic separators are mounted in fixed alignment relative to a main polarizing prism. The prepolarizer acts on the incident light from a source to polarize the green light and reflect the S component out of the system. The red and blue components are transmitted unchanged. The main polarizer is mounted at a 90 DEG twist relative to the prepolarizer so that it reflects the green light to a first light valve via a first dichroic separator. The polarized red and blue components are transmitted to second and third light valves via a second dichroic separator. The light valves modulate the polarization state of incident light before returning it to the second beamsplitter. The second beamsplitter then recombines the individual beams into a single output beam. This beam is projected by a telecentric projection lens to provide a full color high contrast image.