Compact LED projector design with high uniformity and efficiency

Appl Opt. 2014 Oct 10;53(29):H227-32. doi: 10.1364/AO.53.00H227.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to design a compact LED projector that is divided into two systems: an illumination system and an imaging optical system. The illumination system consists of an RGB LED light source with a collimator lens group and a mirror with a color filter and a lens array integrator instead of an integrated rod so as to improve the uniformity of the light intensity. By using a new total internal reflection prism and projection lens, the whole optical engine is smaller in size and has a higher contrast ratio for image quality. The imaging optical system consists of a total of eight lenses (six spherical lenses and two aspherical lenses), for a total length of 52 mm; a tolerance analysis is conducted. Optical simulation software is used for the system analysis in order to determine the efficiency and uniformity of the light intensity. In this design, the uniformity of the screen reaches more than 82%, and the efficiency increases by more than 44%.