US 11,899,235 B2
Display illumination optics
Yosef Arazi, Haifa (IL); Amitay Rudnick, Haifa (IL); Assaf Levy-Beeri, Haifa (IL); Olga Resnik, Haifa (IL); and Dror Oskar, Haifa (IL)
Assigned to ELBIT SYSTEMS LTD., Haifa (IL)
Appl. No. 17/299,349
Filed by ELBIT SYSTEMS LTD., Haifa (IL)
PCT Filed Nov. 29, 2019, PCT No. PCT/IL2019/051315
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jun. 3, 2021,
PCT Pub. No. WO2020/115735, PCT Pub. Date Jun. 11, 2020.
Claims priority of application No. 263519 (IL), filed on Dec. 5, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2022/0035089 A1, Feb. 3, 2022
Int. Cl. F21V 8/00 (2006.01); G02F 1/1362 (2006.01)
CPC G02B 6/0035 (2013.01) [G02F 1/136277 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. Display illumination optics for illuminating an image display device of an image generation apparatus, the display illumination optics comprising: a source illumination distributor that includes an illumination waveguide having a front surface and a back surface opposite the front surface, the illumination waveguide internally directs light along a main direction, wherein the illumination waveguide comprises a plurality of partially reflective surfaces extending between the front and the back surface that distribute the luminance of input illumination light launched into the illumination waveguide and propagating therein as waveguide-propagating illumination light along the main direction of the display illumination optics to obtain at the back surface, along the main direction, output illumination light of uniform or substantially uniform luminance distribution for uniformly or substantially uniformly illuminating the image display device in order to modulate the output illumination light to generate image-bearing light; wherein the light that is entering the waveguide is sequentially split by the plurality of partially reflective surfaces for directing a first split light portion along the main direction and a second split light portion towards the image display device; such that part of the image-bearing light reflected from the image display device is directed towards the back surface to reversely propagate through the-partially reflective surfaces, which are inclined relative to the back surface and the front surface, to emanate from the front surface.