JP2000242192A - Picture display device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make a picture display device drivabing with a low power consumption and to display a high-quality picture with a compact constitution at a low cost. SOLUTION: A light source unit 2 constituted by integrating and unifying 1st to 3rd semiconductor lasers 11, 12 and 13 emitting laser beams of three colors, red, blue and green and a laser beam reflection part 14 reflecting the laser beam of three colors, red, blue and green emitted from the lasers 11, 12 and 13, respectively, and making the optical paths of the laser beams proximate is used as a light source.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an image display device for displaying a color image on an image display unit.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as an image display device, a cathode ray tube type image display device (CRT) for displaying an image by irradiating a phosphor with an electron beam emitted according to an image signal and causing the phosphor to emit light. : Cathode Ray Tube) or a liquid crystal display (LCD) that displays images by changing the transmittance of incident light by changing the alignment of liquid crystals by applying a voltage corresponding to an image signal.
Also, a plasma display panel (PDP: Plasma Display Panel) for displaying an image using light emission accompanying gas discharge has been put to practical use.

[0003] Among them, a cathode ray tube type image display device is relatively easy to realize a high quality display image, and is the most popular image display device in home television receivers and the like. . However, the cathode ray tube type image display device has a problem that power consumption is large and it is difficult to reduce the size of the device itself.

On the other hand, a liquid crystal display device and a plasma display can be driven with low power consumption, but have a problem that the manufacturing cost is high and minute defects are easily generated.

In order to compensate for the above-mentioned drawbacks of these image display devices, there has been proposed a laser display device in which at least three laser beams which can be primary colors for color expression are used for image formation. One configuration example of this laser display device is shown in FIG. The laser display device 100 shown in FIG. 7 converts the laser light of three colors of red, blue, and green emitted from the light sources 101, 102, and 103 into an optical modulator 105 operated under the control of a video amplifier 104.
And then guides the modulated laser beam to substantially the same optical path using an optical component 106 having wavelength selectivity, such as a dichroic mirror, and then the vertical scanning mirror 107 and the horizontal scanning mirror 108 Is scanned on the screen 109 to display an image on the screen 109.

[0006]

However, in the laser display device 100 described above, a large-sized laser such as an Ar ion laser is generally used as the light sources 101, 102 and 103 for emitting laser light. The laser light of three colors, red, blue and green, emitted from the laser light sources 101, 102, and 103 is guided on substantially the same optical path using an optical component 106 having wavelength selectivity such as a dichroic mirror. Therefore, the number of parts was large and the device itself was large.

[0007] The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and can be driven with low power consumption.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an image display device that can display a high-quality image at a small size and at low cost.

[0008]

According to the present invention, there is provided an image display apparatus comprising: a plurality of light sources for emitting light of at least three colors that can be primary colors for color expression; and at least one of the light emitted from the plurality of light sources. A light source unit in which a reflection unit for reflecting light is integrated; and a light scanning unit that scans light emitted from the light source unit on an image display unit. The image display device is characterized in that a distance between principal rays when light from at least two light sources among the plurality of light sources of the light source unit exits the light source unit is smaller than a distance between these light sources. And

In this image display device, at least one of the light emitted from the plurality of light sources of the light source unit is reflected by the reflecting portion, and the optical path is bent. The light from the plurality of light sources is emitted from the light source unit in a state where the distance between the principal rays when the light from the at least two light sources exits the light source unit is smaller than the distance between the light sources. Is done. That is,
The light source unit included in the image display device includes, for example, a light source that emits red light, a light source that emits blue light, a light source that emits green light, and a light source that emits green light. The light from the light source unit can be emitted from the light source unit in a state where the respective optical paths are close to each other.

Light of at least three colors, for example, three colors of red, blue, and green, emitted from the light source unit and serving as primary colors of color expression, is scanned on the image display unit by the optical scanning means. Thereby, an image is displayed on the image display unit.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an example of an image display device to which the present invention is applied. This image display device 1 is, as shown in FIG.
A light source unit 2 that emits at least three color laser beams that can be primary colors of color expression; and a light source unit 2 that modulates at least three color laser beams emitted from the light source unit 2 according to image signals such as television signals and video signals. A video amplifier 3, a light scanning unit 5 for scanning at least three colors of laser light, which is modulated by the video amplifier 3 and emitted from the light source unit 2, on a screen 4, and the video based on an input image signal. A control unit 6 for controlling operations of the amplifier 3 and the optical scanning unit 5; In addition,
Here, an example will be described in which the light source unit 2 that emits red laser light, blue laser light, and green laser light as three color laser lights that can be primary colors of color expression is used.

As shown in FIG. 2, for example, a light source unit 2 includes a first semiconductor laser 11 for emitting red laser light and a second semiconductor laser for emitting blue laser light on a circular base 10.
And a third semiconductor laser 13 that emits green laser light are disposed such that the respective laser light emitting portions face the center of the base. In the center of the base 10, a first reflecting surface 14a facing the laser light emitting portion of the first semiconductor laser 11 and a second reflecting surface facing the laser light emitting portion of the second semiconductor laser 12 are provided. A laser light reflecting portion 14 having a surface 14b and a third reflecting surface 14c facing the laser light emitting portion of the third semiconductor laser 13 is formed.

The first reflecting surface 14a of the laser beam reflecting section 14
Reflects the red laser light emitted from the first semiconductor laser 11 and bends the optical path of the red laser light in a direction substantially perpendicular to the substrate 10. The second reflecting surface 14b of the laser beam reflecting section 14 is the second semiconductor laser 1
The blue laser light emitted from 2 is reflected, and the optical path of the blue laser light is bent in a direction substantially perpendicular to the substrate 10. Further, the third reflecting surface 14 of the laser light reflecting portion 14
c reflects the green laser light emitted from the third semiconductor laser 13 and bends the optical path of the green laser light in a direction substantially perpendicular to the substrate 10.

As described above, the light source unit 2 outputs the red laser light emitted from the first semiconductor laser 11 to the second
The blue laser light emitted from the semiconductor laser 12 and the green laser light emitted from the third semiconductor laser 13 are respectively transmitted by the first to third reflecting surfaces 14a, 14b, and 14c of the laser light reflecting portion 14. By reflecting and bending the optical path of each laser beam in a direction substantially perpendicular to the base 10 and emitting the laser light to the outside of the light source unit 11,
As shown in FIG. 3, the distance L1 between the principal rays of the laser light of each color when emitted to the outside of the light source unit 11 is set to be smaller than the distance L2 between the semiconductor lasers 11, 12, and 13. ing.

That is, in the light source unit 2, the red, blue, and green light emitted from the first to third semiconductor lasers 11, 12, and 13 mounted on the base 10 at a predetermined interval. When the laser light of each color is bent by the laser light reflecting portion 14 and emitted to the outside of the light source unit 2, the optical paths are brought into a state of being extremely close to each other. In FIG. 3, the distance L1 between the principal rays of the red laser light and the blue laser light and the distance L1 between the first semiconductor laser 11 and the second semiconductor laser 12 are shown.
2, only the relationship between the principal ray L1 between the red laser light and the green laser light and the distance L2 between the first semiconductor laser 11 and the third semiconductor laser 13 are shown. The same applies to the relationship between the distance L1 between the principal rays between the blue laser light and the green laser light and the distance L2 between the second semiconductor laser 12 and the third semiconductor laser 13.

The laser beam reflecting portion 14 for reflecting each of the red, blue and green laser beams is provided on a base 10 on which first to third semiconductor lasers 11, 12, and 13 are mounted as shown in FIG. And are formed integrally. Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the laser light reflecting portion 14 may be configured to be formed integrally with the substrates of the first to third semiconductor lasers 11, 12, and 13. In this case, the first reflecting surface 1
The laser light reflecting portion 14 having 4a is formed integrally with the substrate of the first semiconductor laser 11, and the laser light reflecting portion 14 having the second reflecting surface 14b is formed integrally with the substrate of the second semiconductor laser 12. The laser beam reflecting portion 14 having the third reflecting surface 14c is formed integrally with the substrate of the third semiconductor laser 13. In FIG. 5, only the first semiconductor laser 11 and the laser light reflecting portion 14 formed integrally with the substrate are shown.

The red, blue, and green laser beams emitted from the first to third semiconductor lasers 11, 12, and 13 of the light source unit 2
Is modulated according to the image signal.

The video amplifier 3 is operated under the control of the control unit 6 and, for example, according to the image signal supplied to the control unit 6, for example, the first to third semiconductor lasers 11, 12,.
13 by changing the value of the voltage applied to
And modulates red laser light, blue laser light, and green laser light emitted from the third to third semiconductor lasers 11, 12, and 13.

The laser light of three colors, modulated by the video amplifier 3 in accordance with the image signal and emitted to the outside of the light source unit 2, passes through a collimating lens 7 disposed on these optical paths, through an optical scanning unit. 5 is incident. The laser beams of three colors emitted from the light source unit 2 are converted into parallel lights by transmitting through the collimating lens 7. And these three
The color laser light is incident on the optical scanning unit 5 in a state of being made into parallel light. Note that the collimating lens 7 may be provided integrally with the light source unit 2 as shown in FIG.

The light scanning unit 5 that scans the laser light of three colors emitted from the light source unit 2 and converted into parallel light by the collimating lens 7 on the screen 4, applies the laser lights of three colors in the vertical direction of the screen 4. A vertical scanning mirror 21 for scanning, a vertical scanning mirror driving unit 22 for driving the vertical scanning mirror 21, a horizontal scanning mirror 23 for scanning laser light of three colors in the horizontal direction of the screen 4, A horizontal scanning mirror driving unit 24 for driving the scanning mirror 23;

The vertical scanning mirror 21 has a polygonal column shape with a large number of light reflecting surfaces formed on the peripheral surface. By moving in the direction along the vertical direction, the laser beams of the three colors reflected on the respective light reflecting surfaces are sequentially scanned in the vertical direction of the screen 4.

The operation of the vertical scanning mirror driving unit 22 for rotating the vertical scanning mirror 21 is controlled by the control unit 6, and the vertical scanning mirror driving unit 22 vertically rotates at a predetermined rotation speed in accordance with the image signal supplied to the control unit 6. The scanning mirror 21 is rotated.

The horizontal scanning mirror 23 is provided on the optical path of the laser beam reflected by the light reflecting surface of the vertical scanning mirror 21. The horizontal scanning mirror 23, like the vertical scanning mirror 21, has a polygonal column shape with a large number of light reflecting surfaces formed on the peripheral surface, and is rotated by the horizontal scanning mirror driving unit 24. Each light reflecting surface is moved in a direction along the horizontal direction of the screen 4 so that the three color laser beams reflected by the light reflecting surface are scanned in the horizontal direction of the screen 4.

The operation of the horizontal scanning mirror driving section 24 for rotating the horizontal scanning mirror 23 is controlled by the control section 6, and the horizontal scanning mirror 23 is vertically moved in accordance with the image signal supplied to the control section 6. The rotation operation is performed at a predetermined rotation speed while being linked with the scanning mirror 21.

The three color laser beams emitted from the light source unit 2 and converted into parallel light by the collimator lens 7 are scanned in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction of the screen 4 by the optical scanning unit 5 configured as described above. , Objective lens 8
Is projected on the screen 4 via the. Thereby, an image is displayed on the screen 4.

As described above, the image display device 1 to which the present invention is applied has the first to third semiconductor lasers 11, 1
2 and 13 are integrated, and the laser beams of three colors of red, blue and green emitted from the first to third semiconductor lasers 11, 12 and 13 are reflected by the laser light reflecting portion 14 so that the laser beams are reflected from each other. Since the light source unit 2 that emits light to the outside in a state where the optical paths are very close to each other is provided, the number of parts is small, the configuration is extremely simplified, and the whole apparatus can be downsized. Image can be displayed on the display.

That is, for example, when an image display device is configured using three Ar ion lasers as a light source for emitting laser beams of three colors of red, blue, and green, the light source itself is large in size. Therefore, it is difficult to perform modulation corresponding to the image signal directly on the Ar ion laser.
It is necessary to dispose a modulator on the optical path of the laser light emitted from the ion laser to perform modulation on the laser light emitted from the Ar ion laser. When an image display device is configured using three Ar ion lasers, these A
Since the three colors of laser light emitted from the r-ion laser pass through the respective optical paths, they are placed on the optical path of the laser light of each color.
For example, it is necessary to provide an optical element such as a dichroic mirror having wavelength selectivity, and to guide these laser beams on substantially the same optical path. For this reason, the configuration of the image display device is complicated, and the size of the entire device is increased.

Further, this image display device requires high power to excite the Ar laser, so that the power consumption becomes large.

On the other hand, the image display device 1 to which the present invention is applied uses the first to third semiconductor lasers 11, 12, and 13 as light sources for emitting red, blue, and green laser lights. And the light source itself is very small. Further, since it is relatively easy to directly modulate a semiconductor laser, there is no need to arrange a modulator on the optical path of laser light emitted from a light source. Further, the laser beams of three colors emitted from the first to third semiconductor lasers 11, 12, and 13 are reflected by the laser light reflecting portion 14, and emitted from the light source unit 2 in a state where the optical paths are extremely close to each other. So
There is no need to provide an optical element for guiding these laser beams on substantially the same optical path. Therefore, the image display device 1 has a very simple configuration and can be downsized as a whole.

Since the semiconductor laser emits a laser beam stably with a small power, the image display device 1
Low power consumption can be achieved.

Further, when an image display device is constructed using three Ar ion lasers, the optical elements for guiding the laser beams of three colors on substantially the same optical path may be shifted due to aging or the like. However, the image display device 1 to which the present invention is applied has the first to third semiconductor lasers 11, which emit laser light of three colors.
An optical unit is provided in which laser beams 12 and 13 are integrated with a laser beam reflector 14 that reflects the laser beams of three colors emitted from the semiconductor lasers 11, 12 and 13 to bring the optical paths closer to each other. Since the displacement of the optical element as described above is prevented beforehand, a high-quality image can be displayed continuously.

In the image display device 1 to which the present invention is applied, a semiconductor laser is used as a light source. However, the semiconductor laser is capable of displaying a high-quality image on a large screen due to recent technical development. Until sufficient output is obtained. Therefore, the image display device 1 is capable of displaying a high-quality image on a large screen such as a movie theater, for example, while being extremely small.

[0034]

According to the image display apparatus of the present invention, a plurality of light sources including a light source for emitting red light, a light source for emitting blue light, and a light source for emitting green light, and light emitted from the plurality of light sources are provided. Since the light source unit includes an integrated light reflecting unit that reflects at least one of the light and guides the light to substantially the same optical path, the number of components is reduced,
An image can be appropriately displayed with an extremely simple configuration, and the size of the entire apparatus can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of an image display device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a light source unit provided in the image display device.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between a distance between principal rays of laser light and a distance between semiconductor lasers when the light is emitted from the light source unit.

FIG. 4 is a side view of a light source unit in which a laser light reflecting portion is formed integrally with a base.

FIG. 5 is a side view showing a state in which the laser beam reflecting portion is formed integrally with the substrate of the semiconductor laser.

FIG. 6 is a side view of a light source unit provided integrally with a collimating lens.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a conventional laser display device.

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference Signs List 1 image display device, 2 light source unit, 3 video amplifier, 4 screen, 5 optical scanning unit, 6 control unit, 11
1st semiconductor laser, 12 2nd semiconductor laser, 1
3 Third semiconductor laser, 14 Laser light reflecting section

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A light source in which a plurality of light sources that emit light of at least three colors that can be primary colors of a color expression and a reflection unit that reflects at least one of the light emitted from the plurality of light sources are integrated. A light scanning unit configured to scan light emitted from the light source unit on an image display unit, wherein light from at least two light sources among the plurality of light sources of the light source unit is emitted from the light source unit. Wherein the distance between the principal rays is smaller than the distance between these light sources. 2. The image display device according to claim 1, wherein the reflecting portions of the light source unit reflect at least three colors of light emitted from the plurality of light sources, which can be primary colors of color representation. 3. The image display device according to claim 1, wherein the light source of the light source unit is a semiconductor laser. 4. The image display device according to claim 3, wherein the light source unit has the reflection portion formed on a substrate of the semiconductor laser. 5. The image display device according to claim 1, wherein the light source unit is integrally provided with a lens that converts light from the plurality of light sources into parallel light.