Illumination device and display device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9335558-B2
Application number	US-201213543792-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 7, 2012
Priority date	Jul 13, 2011
Publication date	May 10, 2016
Grant date	May 10, 2016

Abstract

An illumination device including a light source section including a laser light source, and allowing a laser light beam emitted from the laser light source to be output intermittently at a predetermined frequency; an optical element through which the laser light beam passes; and a driver section changing a coherency of the laser light beam by driving the optical element at a predetermined drive frequency. Expressions (1) |2×f2−n1×f1|≧20 or (2) |2×f2−n2×f1|≦3, (3) f2≧20 or (4) f2≦3, and (5) |f2−n1×f1|≧20 or (6) |f2−n3×f1|≦3 are satisfied, where f1 denotes the predetermined frequency in Hz, f2 denotes a variation frequency of luminance in illumination light output from the optical element in Hz, the variation frequency being generated by the driving of the optical element, n1 denotes an arbitrary integer of 0 to 10 both inclusive, and n2 and n3 denote respective predetermined integers of 0 to 10 both inclusive.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An illumination device, comprising:
a light source section including a laser light source, and allowing a laser light beam emitted from the laser light source to be output intermittently at a predetermined frequency;
an optical element through which the laser light beam output intermittently from the light source section passes; and
a driver section changing a coherency of the laser light beam by driving the optical element at a predetermined drive frequency,
wherein the following expression (1) or (2), expression (3) or (4), and expression (5) or (6) are satisfied:
|2× f 2− n 1× f 1|≧20  (1)

|2× f 2− n 2× f 1|≦3  (2)

f 2≧20  (3)

f 2≦3  (4)

| f 2− n 1× f 1|≧20  (5)

| f 2− n 3× f 1|≦3  (6)

where f1 denotes the predetermined frequency in Hz, f2 denotes a variation frequency of luminance in illumination light output from the optical element in Hz, the variation frequency being generated by the driving of the optical element, n1 denotes an arbitrary integer of 0 to 10 both inclusive, and n2 and n3 denote respective predetermined integers of 0 to 10 both inclusive.

2. The illumination device according to claim 1 , wherein, when the expression (1), (3), or (5) is satisfied, the following expression (7) is further satisfied:
(1/ f 32)≦ A 0  (7)

where respective spatial frequencies of a luminance distribution of the illumination light when the driving of the optical element is stopped are denoted by f31, . . . , f3M in increasing order, M being an integer of equal to or more than 2, and A0 denotes a spatial amplitude of the luminance distribution of the illumination light when the driving of the optical element is performed.

3. The illumination device according to claim 1 , wherein:
the light source section allows the laser light beams having a plurality of wavelengths to be output, and
the expression (1) or (2), the expression (3) or (4), and the expression (5) or (6) are satisfied for the frequency of the laser light beam having a wavelength, among the plurality of wavelengths, that at least corresponds to a color having a highest luminosity factor.

4. The illumination device according to claim 3 , wherein the expression (1) or (2), the expression (3) or (4), and the expression (5) or (6) are satisfied for the frequency of each of the laser light beams having respective wavelengths, among the plurality of wavelengths, that at least correspond to two or more colors having higher luminosity factors relatively.

5. The illumination device according to claim 4 , wherein the expression (1) or (2), the expression (3) or (4), and the expression (5) or (6) are satisfied for the frequency of each of the laser light beams having the plurality of wavelengths.

6. The illumination device according to claim 1 , further comprising a control section dynamically controlling the drive frequency and the frequency to satisfy the expression (1) or (2), the expression (3) or (4), and the expression (5) or (6).

7. The illumination device according to claim 1 , wherein the expression (3) is satisfied.

8. The illumination device according to claim 1 , wherein the following expression (8) or (9), expression (10) or (11), and expression (12) or (13) are satisfied:
|2× f 2− n 1× f 1|≧50  (8)

|2× f 2− n 2× f 1|≦0.5  (9)

f 2≧50  (10)

f 2≦0.5  (11)

| f 2− n 1× f 1|≧50  (12)

| f 2− n 3× f 1|≦0.5  (13).

9. The illumination device according to claim 8 , wherein the expression (10) is satisfied.

10. The illumination device according to claim 1 , wherein the laser light source allows the laser light beam to be output intermittently at the predetermined frequency.

11. The illumination device according to claim 1 , wherein the driver section changes one or more of a position, an angle, a polarization, and a phase of the laser light beam by driving the optical element.

12. The illumination device according to claim 11 , wherein the driver section changes one or both of the position and the angle of the laser light beam by mechanically vibrating the optical element at a predetermined vibration frequency, as the drive frequency.

13. The illumination device according to claim 12 , wherein:
the optical element includes a plurality of structural units arranged in a direction of the vibration thereof, and
the following expression is satisfied:
f 2=(2× N×f 0)

 where f0 denotes the vibration frequency, and N denotes a ratio of an amplitude of the vibration of the optical element to a pitch of the structural units in the direction of the vibration.

14. The illumination device according to claim 11 , wherein the driver section changes one or both of the polarization and the phase of the laser light beam by electrically vibrating the optical element at the drive frequency.

15. The illumination device according to claim 14 , wherein the optical element is a liquid crystal element.

16. The illumination device according to claim 1 , wherein the light source section includes three types of light sources emitting light beams of red, green, and blue.

17. The illumination device according to claim 16 , wherein one or more of the three types of light sources includes the laser light source.

18. A display device with an illumination device emitting illumination light and a light modulation element modulating the illumination light based on an image signal, the illumination device comprising:
a light source section including a laser light source, and allowing a laser light beam emitted from the laser light source to be output intermittently at a predetermined frequency;
an optical element through which the laser light beam output intermittently from the light source section passes; and
a driver section changing a coherency of the laser light beam by driving the optical element at a predetermined drive frequency,
wherein the following expression (1) or (2), expression (3) or (4), and expression (5) or (6) are satisfied:
|2× f 2− n 1× f 1|≧20  (1)

|2× f 2− n 2× f 1|≦3  (2)

f 2≧20  (3)

f 2≦3  (4)

| f 2− n 1× f 1|≧20  (5)

| f 2− n 3× f 1|≦3  (6)

 where f1 denotes the predetermined frequency in Hz, f2 denotes a variation frequency of luminance in illumination light output from the optical element in Hz, the variation frequency being generated by the driving of the optical element, n1 denotes an arbitrary integer of 0 to 10 both inclusive, and n2 and n3 denote respective predetermined integers of 0 to 10 both inclusive.

19. The display device according to claim 18 , further comprising a projection optical system projecting the illumination light modulated by the light modulation element onto a projected surface.

20. The display device according to claim 19 , wherein the optical element is disposed near a pupil of the projection optical system, or a conjugate point of the pupil.

Assignees

• Yasui Toshifumi
• Isobe Hiroshi
• Takahashi Kazuyuki
• Sony Corp

Inventors

• Yasui Toshifumi
• Isobe Hiroshi
• Takahashi Kazuyuki

Classifications

• G03B21/2033

  LED or laser light sources · CPC title

• G03B21/208

  Homogenising, shaping of the illumination light · CPC title

• G03B33/08

  Sequential recording or projection (G03B33/02, G03B33/04, G03B33/06 take precedence) · CPC title

• G02B27/48 Primary

  Laser speckle optics · CPC title

• H04N9/3155

  for controlling the light source (light source control per se H05B35/00 – H05B47/00; control of an illumination source for displays in general G09G3/3406) · CPC title