(12) United States Patent ao) Patent No.: us 6,666,558 Bi
Yamagishi et al. (45) Date of Patent: Dec. 23,2003
(54) PROJECTION IMAGE DISPLAY
(75) Inventors: Shigekazu Yamagishi, Osaka (JP);
Atsushi Hatakeyama, Osaka (JP);
Hitoshi Noda, Osaka (JP)
(73) Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.,
Ltd., Osaka (JP)
( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term ol this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 0 days.
(21) Appl. No.: 09/763,936
(22) PCT Filed: Jun. 28, 2000
(86) PCT No.: PCT/JP00/04282
§ 371 (c)(1),
(2), (4) Date: Feb. 27, 2001
(87) PCT Pub. No.: WO01/02906 PCT Pub. Date: Jan. 11, 2001
(30) Foreign Application Priority Data
Jul. 2, 1999 (JP) 11-188736
Jul. 16, 1999 (JP) 11-203067
(51) Int. CI.7 G03B 21/26
(52) U.S. CI 353/94; 353/84
(58) Field of Search 353/94, 31, 84
(56) References Cited
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
5,150,205 A 9/1992 Urn et al.
5,282,121 A 1/1994 Bornhorst et al.
5,504,544 A 4/1996 Dreyer et al.
5,560,697 A * 10/1996 Lim et al 348/771
5,648,860 A * 7/1997 Ooi et al 349/10
5,650,832 A * 7/1997 Poradish et al 348/743
5,765,934 A * 6/1998 Okamori et al 353/38
5,836,664 A 11/1998 Conner et al.
6,028,703 A * 2/2000 Sekine et al 353/20
6,144,426 A * 11/2000 Yamazaki et al 349/5
6,147,720 A * 11/2000 Guerinot et al 348/743
6,224,217 Bl * 5/2001 Tanaka 353/31
6,371,617 Bl * 4/2002 Nishida et al 353/102
FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS
JP 2-119005 5/1990
JP 5-150213 6/1993
JP 6-242397 9/1994
JP 6-265887 9/1994
JP 8-201755 8/1996
JP 9-185902 7/1997
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
Asia Display '95 (pp. 95-98).
* cited by examiner
Primary Examiner—Russell Adams Assistant Examiner—D. Ben Esplin (74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Merchant & Gould, PC.
(57) ABSTRACT
A projection display system includes: two light sources (102, 105); a condenser (103, 106) for condensing the light from the light sources; a time-division color separating optical system (108) for temporally switching the incident light into a first, second, or third color of light to be emitted; a light valve (118) capable of modulating the incident light individually for each pixel; a lighting optical system (111, 112,114) for directing the light from the time-division color separating optical system onto the light valve, and a projection optical system (123) for magnifying and projecting a pixel on the light valve. The light from the two light sources (102, 105) is condensed on the time-division color separating optical system or its vicinity by the condenser (103, 106), and then superimposed. This can provide a projection display system that performs time-division driving and can achieve high-brightness projection images without increasing the size and cost of a system.
17 Claims, 21 Drawing Sheets
