Stacking architecture for collimated backlight using cylindrical lens sheet with linear light sources or edge-lit/direct-lit BLU.

Publisher: Optica Publishing Group Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 101137103 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1094-4087 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 10944087 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Opt Express Subsets: PubMed not MEDLINE; MEDLINE

Publication: Washington, DC : Optica Publishing Group
Original Publication: Washington, DC : Optical Society of America, 1997-

Highly collimated and directional backlights are essential for realizing advanced display technologies such as autostereoscopic 3D displays. Previously reported collimated backlights, either edge-lit or direct-lit, in general still suffer unsatisfactory form factors, directivity, uniformity, or crosstalk etc. In this work, we report a simple stacking architecture for the highly collimated and uniform backlights, by combining linear light source arrays and carefully designed cylindrical lens arrays. Experiments were conducted to validate the design and simulation, using the conventional edge-lit backlight or the direct-lit mini-LED (mLED) arrays as light sources, the NiFe (stainless steel) barrier sheets, and cylindrical lens arrays fabricated by molding. Highly collimated backlights with small angular divergence of ±1.45°∼±2.61°, decent uniformity of 93-96%, and minimal larger-angle sidelobes in emission patterns were achieved with controlled divergence of the light source and optimization of lens designs. The architecture reported here provides a convenient way to convert available backlight sources into a highly collimated backlight, and the use of optically reflective barrier also helps recycle light energy and enhance the luminance. The results of this work are believed to provide a facile approach for display technologies requiring highly collimated backlights.

Date Created: 20240404 Latest Revision: 20240404

20240404

10.1364/OE.519269

38571052