CN113064319A

CN113064319A - Concentrated confocal image light source of projector optical engine and highlight flashlight

Info

Publication number: CN113064319A
Application number: CN202011639995.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 吴小平; 罗天珍
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2020-01-01
Filing date: 2020-12-31
Publication date: 2021-07-02

Abstract

A cluster confocal image light source of a projector optical engine and a highlight flashlight; comprises a first stage, a second stage and a bracket; luminous point or continuous luminous line or ring, two-stage confocal, image geometric optical structure: the optical flow is as follows: the light emitted by the luminous line or ring formed by a plurality of luminous points in a cluster or continuous way enters into a two-stage treatment; firstly, discrete or continuous luminous points or luminous lines which are arranged in an annular or linear way are imaged or converged into a real image of a point area or a linear area through a lens or a lens group by a first stage; the real image of the first stage and the focus area of the parabolic mirror or the ellipsoidal mirror or the lens of the second stage are superposed together to form a so-called confocal image; the light emitted by the second stage of the cluster confocal light source is used as the light source of the optical engine of the projector and the strong light flashlight, so that the maximum light field brightness and good optical quality of the optical engine can be obtained, and the large light-gathering brightness of the strong light flashlight can be obtained.

Description

Concentrated confocal image light source of projector optical engine and highlight flashlight

[ technical field ]

The invention belongs to the technical field of optics-electronics; it would be precisely an apparatus that would greatly enhance the brightness (and maintain high optical qualities: e.g., etendue; collimation of features, etc.) of the optical engine and the flashlight of the projector.

[ background art ]

The development of the projector is revolutionized by three development stages, which are realized by three typical display technologies, namely, CRT projection technology, LCD projection technology and DLP projection technology developed in recent years; the core of the projector comprises: the projector mainly comprises three main parts, namely a projector structural component, an optical engine (comprising a lens group), and an electric control and interface. The core projection imaging component is the core of the projector product, and occupies a very important part in the cost composition of the whole projector product, and the position of the projection imaging component is similar to a processor in a computer. And an important component in the optical engine structure is the light source.

LCD (Liquid Crystal Display, Liquid Crystal) projector:

LCD display technology is one of the leading technologies in the projector market at present, and liquid crystals include active liquid crystals and inactive liquid crystals. The non-active liquid crystal reflects light and is generally used for notebook computers and film projectors. The active liquid crystal has light transmittance, and can be used in a projector to form an LCD panel. The LCD projector is divided into two types, namely a liquid crystal panel and a liquid crystal light valve, and most of the common projectors are liquid crystal panel projectors. The basic structure of the optical engine of the LCD projection system is provided with a photographic lens; a liquid crystal panel; a mirror; a light-combining prism; a condenser lens; a dichroic mirror; the bulb (light emitting) spot.

Liquid crystal (panel) projector: the liquid crystal projector utilizes the electro-optical effect of liquid crystal and controls the transmissivity and reflectivity of liquid crystal unit via circuit to produce beautiful image with different gray levels and 16.70 million colors. The light source of the liquid crystal panel projector is a special high-power bulb, and the luminous energy is far higher than that of a CRT projector utilizing fluorescence, so that the brightness and the color saturation of the liquid crystal panel projector are higher than those of the CRT projector. The area of the LCD liquid crystal plate determines the structure and the whole volume of the projector, and the smaller the area of the LCD liquid crystal plate, the smaller the optical system of the projector can be made, thereby the smaller the projector is. Currently, the sizes of the panels of liquid crystal projectors (transmissive display light valves) on the market are 1.32 inches (1 inch is 2.54cm), 0.9 inches and 0.7 inches, and the physical resolutions of SVGA and XGA can be supported. New liquid crystal panels, such as 0.79 inch and 0.99 inch panels with high aperture ratio, have also begun to come into the market. High-end LCD projection liquid crystal panel suppliers currently have only two manufacturers, Epson and Sony, in japan. The LCD projector has advantages of excellent color expression and high brightness, and has disadvantages in that light efficiency is somewhat affected by the projection method and pixelation occurs in a projected image (aperture ratio is not high enough). Liquid crystal panel projectors can be divided into two types, a single-panel type and a three-panel type, and most modern liquid crystal panel projectors adopt 3-panel type LCD panels (fig. 1). The three-piece liquid crystal board projector uses red, green and blue liquid crystal boards as the control layers of red, green and blue light. The three-chip type liquid crystal panel projector has higher image quality and higher brightness than the single-chip type liquid crystal panel projector. The liquid crystal panel projector has the advantages of small volume, light weight, simple manufacturing process, high brightness and contrast and moderate resolution, and is the projector with the highest share and the most wide application in the current market.

Liquid crystal light valve projector: the liquid crystal light valve projector adopts a CRT tube and a liquid crystal light valve as imaging devices, and is a product of combining the CRT projector and the liquid crystal (reflection) light valve. The projector has the highest brightness and resolution, the brightness can reach 6000ANSI lumens, the resolution is 2500 multiplied by 2000, and the projector is suitable for occasions with strong ambient light and more audiences, such as ultra-large command centers, conference centers and large entertainment venues, but the projector has high price and large volume, and the light valve is not easy to maintain. The main brands are: Huss-JVC, Ampro, etc.

DLP (Digital Light Processor Digital Light output) Digital projector:

DLP technology is the patented technology of TI (texas instruments, usa). Projectors based on DLP display technology were first introduced in 1996. The imaging Device is a DMD (Digital Micromirror Device). The DMD chip contains thousands of micromirrors, each mirror representing a pixel, and the on or off state represents the brightness and darkness of the pixel in the image. The light beam is projected onto the DMD by a color wheel (color separation device) rotating at high speed, and then projected onto a large screen by an optical lens. DLP technology is currently owned by the TI company patent, which is also the only supplier of DMD chips. Technical advantages of the DLP projector: first is the numerical advantage: the adoption of digital technology has the advantages of excellent image contrast, gray scale (256-1024 levels), color (2563-10243 types), image signal-to-noise ratio, stable picture quality and the like. Secondly, the reflection advantage: due to the application of the reflective DMD device, the distance between the micro mirror surfaces forming the DLP image pixels is small, so that the light transmission efficiency of the imaging device reaches more than 85 percent. The resulting image is very bright and sharp. DLP projector can be divided into singlechip and three mascerating machines: a single chip microcomputer: the single-chip DLP projector has the advantages of high light efficiency, high contrast, clear image and excellent performance in black-white image and text, and meanwhile, the single-chip DLP projector can be small, exquisite, light and thin and has the defect of unreal and natural color performance. Three-chip microcomputer: the DLP projector manufactured by using three DMD chips can realize higher brightness and richer colors, the brightness can reach more than 10000ANSI lumens, and the DLP projector is mostly applied to special occasions such as digital cinema and the like.

At present, projectors of LCD technology and DLP technology are two major marketing in the market. The japanese manufacturers mostly adopt LCD technology, and the european and american manufacturers can adopt both LCD and DLP technology. LCD and DLP are in intense competition, whose products and technologies are better, but there is no clear answer at present, but it can be said that the image contrast generated by a projector using DLP is higher, and the optical path system is designed to be more compact, so that it is superior in terms of volume and weight; while LCDs are powerful in terms of brightness uniformity, color, and detail. The two technologies have characteristics and are difficult to distinguish, and coexist in the future for a long time, and unless one party breaks through the technology or the market strategy, the balance is expected to be broken, and the dominant position is occupied.

The structure of flashlight is simple relatively, several kinds of spotlight mode of LED flashlight:

lens light gathering: the light is focused using a lens designed via a tight optical path. The method is characterized in that: the LED light source has the advantages of small volume and good convergence effect, but the combination range is limited, and the LED light source is only used for LEDs with larger divergence angles and smaller light-emitting cores.

Condensing by using a reflecting cup: the light is focused using a lens designed through the optical path. The cup can be divided into a smooth cup and an orange peel cup, the smooth cup has good light condensation effect, less scattered light and poor and uneven light spot effect; the light-gathering effect of the orange peel cup is poorer than that of a smooth cup of the same type, and the floodlight is more, but the light spot effect is obviously better than that of the smooth cup and is more even. The method is characterized in that: the size of the light reflecting cup can be freely designed, but the larger and deeper the light cup is, the better the light condensation effect is, and the worse the floodlight is.

led itself collects light: typically used with low power led. The method is characterized in that: and a light path is not required to be designed, and light is condensed only by the optical design of the LED, so that the light condensing effect is poor.

Other convergence modes: such as a convergence mode of optical fibers, which is rarely used in a flashlight.

The structure of the flashlight comprises a light source part, a shell, a battery, a switch and other components, and the size of the light emitting point of the light source has great influence on the projection distance of the light gathering; the flashlight is matched with a smaller point light source, and a better effect can be achieved. The flashlight divide into: the second generation flashlight and the third generation flashlight, especially the third generation flashlight adopt LED bulbs, the flashlight is the application of a new lighting technology, the color temperature reaches the unprecedented height, approaches or even exceeds the color temperature of white light, and the power consumption is lower.

[ summary of the invention ]

The invention aims to solve the defects of the prior art, and because the existing flashlight uses 1 or more bulbs (mainly LEDs) to be directly placed in the focus area of a paraboloid, the brightness of a single bulb is insufficient, and the light emitting areas of a plurality of light sources are too large, the balance between the brightness and the light condensation (parallel far light) cannot be realized. On the premise of not influencing the utilization efficiency of light, the brightness is greatly improved (the relation between the comprehensive efficiency of the projector and the dimension of a light-emitting area of the light source is extremely large; especially, the brightness of a single LED light source is far insufficient, and the dimension of the light-emitting area of the light source is greatly increased due to a plurality of LED light sources, so that the optical quality is seriously reduced, such as the indexes of collimation degree represented by optical expansion and the like, the extra loss of a subsequent light field is caused, and the utilization efficiency of the light is seriously reduced).

The invention is characterized in that; by utilizing the imaging principle of a lens (a plurality of lenses, namely a bundling concept), wherein scattered light rays emitted by an object point are converged at an image point, and the characteristic that the scattered light rays are in one-to-one correspondence with the point is utilized, the images of a plurality of light emitting points are arranged in the same area, and then the same area is superposed with the focus of a paraboloid (confocal and image); this is equivalent to a large brightness increase without increasing the dimensions of the light emitting area of the light source. And the equivalent reduction of the light-emitting dimension has great significance to a projector and a flashlight.

The cluster confocal and image (focus and image point) light source comprises: the position relation of the parallel shafts and the main and auxiliary optical axes of the converging shaft; each type of light spots corresponds to the light spots in annular arrangement and linear arrangement; the structure of the bundled confocal light source comprises 2 levels (if necessary, more than 3 levels of treatment can be carried out, such as filtering, homogenizing, further collimation and the like): firstly, discrete or continuous luminous points or luminous lines which are arranged in an annular or linear way are imaged or converged into a real image of a point area or a linear area through a lens or a lens group by a first stage; the second stage is to place the real image in the focus area of a paraboloidal mirror or an ellipsoidal mirror (also called as a reflecting cup condensing rotating or cylindrical paraboloid or a rotating or cylindrical ellipsoidal surface) or a lens (integrated or split or lens group) and then project the real image in a parallel collimation or focusing manner; the core characteristics are as follows: the real image of the point-shaped area or the linear area generated by the first stage is superposed with the focus of the parabolic mirror or the ellipsoidal mirror or the lens (group) or the linear focus area of the second stage, which is equivalent to that a superposed light source is arranged in the focus area of the second stage. (the concept of bundling is that a plurality of luminous points are gathered together; for a continuous luminous line or ring, the luminous line or ring can be seen as being composed of an infinite number of independent luminous points with extremely small intervals in a mathematical angle, and no essential difference exists).

When the cluster confocal light source is used as a light source of an optical engine of a projector, the cluster confocal light source is used as a light source component and is arranged at an initial end of light of the optical engine of the projector (a shell, a lens group, a display device, a light finishing component and the like are arranged in the optical engine), a UHP bulb which directly replaces parallel light and light condensation of an Osron projector is shot onto an imaging display device after the light finishing, and the UHP bulb is projected out through the lens group.

When the cluster confocal light source is used as a highlight flashlight light source, the cluster confocal light source is used as a light source component, is arranged at the front end of a highlight flashlight and is used as a light source and a component in a reflector area (a shell, a battery, a switch and other components are also arranged in the flashlight), and is directly projected by the cluster confocal light source after being connected with the shell, the battery, the switch and other components through the shell.

Further: the lens and the lens group comprise: spherical, cylindrical, aspherical, etc., and may be a fresnel lens; the combination of the lenses is integrated or separated or is a lens group.

Further: the position relationship between the parallel shafts and the main and auxiliary optical axes of the converging shaft is as follows: parallel shafts and convergence shafts; parallel axes means that the plurality of secondary optical axes (21) are parallel to the primary optical axis (8); converging shafts; the parallel axis type also means that the main optical axis (18) and the auxiliary optical axis (21) are in the following positional relationship: a confocal and image area (32) in which the secondary optical axis (21) is parallel to the primary optical axis (18) or all the secondary optical axes (21) converge (intersect) at the same point on the primary optical axis (18); for the converging shaft case: a main lens corresponding to the main optical axis (8) is an optional component.

Further: all the lenses, mirrors, rotating structures or cylindrical structures.

The technical progress of the cluster confocal light source of the invention is as follows: the real images of a plurality of light emitting points are gathered together to be used as the focus of the next-stage paraboloid or the lens; the brightness is effectively increased under the condition of not increasing the distribution volume of the light source, so that the quality of parallel light and converged light is not reduced; in addition, most of the projection energy of the peripheral (luminous) light spots is concentrated on the side wall of the parabolic reflector, which is more favorable for improving the light condensation rate.

[ illustration ]

The invention will be further described with reference to a preferred embodiment;

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a parallel-axis integrated bundled confocal light source.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a parallel-axis split confocal beam source.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a cluster confocal light source with a converging axis.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of a cluster confocal light source with linearly arranged light spots.

Description of reference numerals:

(1) composite confocal lens

(2) Cylindrical main lens

(3) Main lens

(4) Auxiliary lens

(5) Parabolic reflecting section

(6) Floodlight reflecting area

(7) (light-emitting) spot

(8) (9), (10) optical axes

(11) PCB board

(12) Cone confocal lens group

(13) Discrete lens

(15) Flood light

(16) Light gathering

(18) Main optical axis

(19) Main convex curved surface

(21) And (35) secondary optical axis

(22) Minor convex curved surface

(23) Support frame

(24) Center lamp

(30) (36) plan view

(31) (32), (33) confocal, image area (dot shape)

(34) Linear confocal, image area

(37) Small focal length cylindrical lens

(38) Collimating a ribbon beam

[ example of embodiment ]

As shown in [ fig. 1 ]:

is a cross-sectional view of the main optical axis.

Is one of the schemes of parallel axis and annular arrangement (light emitting) of light spots; a plurality of secondary optical axes (21) parallel to the primary optical axis (8); a light path diagram combining a top view (30) of the composite confocal lens (1) and the cross-section shown; it can be clearly seen that: the main optical axis (8) positioned in the paraboloid reflecting area (5) is the optical axis of the main convex curved surface (19) on the upper surface of the composite confocal lens (1), and the auxiliary optical axis (21) is the optical axis of the auxiliary convex curved surface (22) on the lower surface of the composite confocal lens (1); according to the imaging principle of the convex lens: scattered light emitted by a light emitting point welded on a light emitting point (7) on a PCB (11) is converged by an auxiliary convex curved surface (22), converged by a main convex curved surface (19), and finally converged and focused on a confocal image area (31) on a main optical axis (8); the method is equivalent to converging the light emitted by a plurality of (7) light-emitting points (7) on the same place, or the light-emitting points satisfy the condition of geometric imaging on a confocal and image-forming area (31) [ so that the position relation between the secondary optical axis (21) and the primary optical axis (8) is as follows: the auxiliary optical axis (21) is parallel to the main optical axis (8) or all the auxiliary optical axes (21) converge (intersect) at the same point on the main optical axis (8); corresponding to a real image which is converged into a spot-like region in a confocal image area (31); the brightness of the confocal image area (31) is greatly improved, and the equivalent light-emitting area (image point) is not excessively increased.

When the focus of a rotating paraboloidal reflecting umbrella is superposed with a confocal image area (31) (also called confocal), light emitted by the confocal image area (31) forms a condensed light (16) and is emitted out almost in parallel; a flood reflection zone (6) located closer to the focus of the paraboloid, the shape of the reflection surface being smooth or wavy and acting to reflect other stray light rays and to emit scattered flood light (15). It is to be noted that: the position shape is a continuation of the parabolic shape or is a flood reflecting area machined to be a non-co-focal paraboloid.

As shown in [ fig. 2 ]:

is a cross-sectional view of the main optical axis.

Is also one of the schemes of parallel axis, annular arrangement of light emitting spots; the principle is the same as that of the first drawing, and in combination with a top view (30), the main lens (3) and the auxiliary lens (4) can be separated, and the position relation between the main optical axis (18) and the auxiliary optical axis (21) is also as follows: the secondary optical axis (21) is parallel to the primary optical axis (18) or all the secondary optical axes (21) converge (intersect) at a confocal image area (32) at the same point on the primary optical axis (18).

As shown in [ fig. 3 ]:

is a cross-sectional view of the main optical axis.

Is one of the schemes of converging axis and annularly arranging (emitting) light spots; is a cluster confocal and image light source system with better effect than that of the light source system shown in figures 1 and 2; directly using a discrete lens (13) or a lens group to directly image a luminous point (luminous) spot (7) on a confocal and image area (33); with reference to the conical confocal lens group (12), the holder (23) serves to keep the secondary optical axis (35) of the light-emitting spot (7) pointing and converging on the same point as the primary optical axis (18). The paraboloid reflecting area (5) is used for reflecting the condensed light (16); the central light (24) is mainly used for emitting floodlight (15).

In practice, the center light (24) can be eliminated and the vacated position used as a placement for the flood reflector surface, which is a tapered, truncated surface parallel to the main optical axis (18).

As shown in [ fig. 4 ]:

is a cross-sectional view of the main optical axis.

Is one of the schemes of parallel axis, linear arrangement (light emitting) of light spots; after the main lens of fig. 1 and 2 is changed into the cylindrical main lens (2), it can be seen from the top view (36): the light emitting points welded on the PCB (11) are arranged in a line shape parallel to the axis of the cylindrical surface; the main optical axis of the cylindrical main lens (2) is extended into a plane to form a linear confocal and image area (34); the auxiliary convex curved surface (22) is still matched with the auxiliary optical axis (21); real images corresponding to the convergence of the confocal and image areas (34) into linear areas;

when the focal point (linear) of the small-focus cylindrical lens (37) is aligned with the linear confocal image area (34), a collimated ribbon beam (38) with high quality and a large number of parallel components is obtained.

Claims

1. A cluster confocal image light source of a projector optical engine and a highlight flashlight; the method is characterized in that: the components of the light source include: a first stage focusing stage (first stage for short), a second stage confocal projection stage (second stage for short) and a bracket; luminous point or continuous luminous line or ring, two-stage confocal, image geometric optical structure: the optical flow is as follows: the light emitted by the luminous line or ring formed by a plurality of luminous points in a cluster or continuous way enters into a two-stage treatment; firstly, discrete or continuous luminous points or luminous lines which are arranged in an annular or linear way are imaged or converged into a real image of a point area or a linear area through a lens or a lens group by a first stage; the real image of the first stage and the focus area of the parabolic mirror or the ellipsoidal mirror or the lens of the second stage are superposed together to form a so-called confocal image; then the real image of the first stage is projected in a collimation parallel or focusing manner by the second stage; the bracket is used for maintaining the confocal working position relation of the first stage and the second stage; when the cluster confocal light source is used as a light source of an optical engine of a projector, the cluster confocal light source is used as a light source component and is arranged at an initial end of light of the optical engine of the projector (the optical engine also comprises a shell, a lens group, a display device and a light finishing component), a UHP bulb which directly replaces parallel light and light condensation of the projector is shot to an imaging display device after light finishing, and the UHP bulb is projected out through the lens group; when the cluster confocal light source is used as a cluster confocal light source and is used as a highlight flashlight light source, the cluster confocal light source is used as a light source component, is arranged at the front end of a highlight flashlight and is used as a light source and a component of a reflector area (the flashlight also comprises a shell, a battery and a switch component), and is directly projected out by the cluster confocal light source after being connected with the shell, the battery, the switch and other components through the shell.

2. The coherent confocal image light source of a projector optical engine and a glare flashlight of claim 1, wherein: the first stage and the second stage have the position relation that: the position relation of the main and auxiliary optical axes of the parallel axis and the convergence axis; the position relationship between the parallel shafts and the main and auxiliary optical axes of the converging shaft is as follows: parallel shafts and convergence shafts; parallel axes means that the plurality of secondary optical axes (21) are parallel to the primary optical axis (8); converging shafts; the parallel axis type also means that the main optical axis (18) and the auxiliary optical axis (21) are in the following positional relationship: a confocal and image area (32) in which the secondary optical axis (21) is parallel to the primary optical axis (18) or all the secondary optical axes (21) converge (intersect) at the same point on the primary optical axis (18); for the converging shaft case: the main lens corresponding to the main optical axis (8) is an optional component, in particular the position of the central light (24) near the focus of the main optical axis: can be eliminated and the vacated position used as a placement for the flood reflecting surface, which is a conical, truncated surface parallel to the main optical axis (18).

3. The coherent confocal image light source of a projector optical engine and a glare flashlight of claim 1, wherein: the lens and the lens group comprise: spherical, cylindrical, aspherical, etc., and may be a fresnel lens; the combination of the lenses is integrated or separated or is a lens group.

4. The coherent confocal image light source of a projector optical engine and a glare flashlight of claim 1, wherein: all the lenses, mirrors, rotating structures or cylindrical structures.

5. The coherent confocal image light source of a projector optical engine and a glare flashlight of claim 1, wherein: the area of the parabolic mirror close to the focus of the paraboloid is a continuation of the shape of the paraboloid or is processed into a floodlight reflecting area of the paraboloid with a non-homofocal point, and the shape of the reflecting surface is smooth or wavy and is used for reflecting other stray light rays, so that the floodlight is called.