Polarization-Preserving Light Guide Plate for a Linearly Polarized Backlight

    Authors

    Z. Y. Luo; Y. W. Cheng;S. T. Wu

    Comments

    Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

    Abbreviated Journal Title

    J. Disp. Technol.

    Keywords

    Light guide plate; liquid crystal display (LCD); LCD BACKLIGHT; DISPLAYS; CONVERTER; DESIGN; Engineering, Electrical & Electronic; Optics; Physics, Applied

    Abstract

    We analyze the polarization-preserving property of two conventional edge-lit light guide plates (LGPs) based on scattering dots and refractive microgrooves and find that these two structures almost completely depolarize the incident linearly polarized light. We then propose a new edge-lit LGP based on total internal reflection (TIR). Simulation results show that such a TIR-based LGP can largely preserve the polarization state of the incident linearly polarized light. The polarization efficiency is 77.2%. By incorporating a linearly polarized LED to our proposed LGP, the overall optical gain is 1.54 compared with the backlight system with an unpolarized LED. At on-axis, the luminance is higher. Because the output light is concentrated near the surface normal direction, no additional brightness enhancement film is needed. This polarization-preserving LGP enables a polarized or partially polarized LED backlight to be used, which in turn greatly enhances the optical efficiency of a LCD.

    Journal Title

    Journal of Display Technology

    Volume

    10

    Issue/Number

    3

    Publication Date

    1-1-2014

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    208

    Last Page

    214

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000331967900006

    ISSN

    1551-319X

    Share

    COinS