Abstract
An illuminating device may include a light source, an optical unit configured to adjust direction of light from the light source, a reflector, a light pipe, and an exciter. The light pipe may receive light having a first wavelength from the optical unit and direct the light having the first wavelength onto the exciter. The exciter may convert the light having the first wavelength into light having the second wavelength and reflects the light having the second wavelength to the reflector. A circumferential wall of the light pipe is configured to reflect the light having the first wavelength and to transmit the light having the second wavelength.
Claims
1. An illuminating device, comprising: a light source, an optical unit configured to adjust direction of light from the light source, a reflector, a light pipe, and an exciter, wherein the light pipe receives light having a first wavelength from the optical unit and direct the light having the first wavelength onto the exciter, the exciter converts the light having the first wavelength into light having the second wavelength and reflects the light having the second wavelength to the reflector, wherein a circumferential wall of the light pipe is configured to reflect the light having the first wavelength and to transmit the light having the second wavelength.
2. The illuminating device according to claim 1, wherein the light pipe is tapered.
3. The illuminating device according to claim 2, wherein an inner side of the circumferential wall of the light pipe is coated with a dichromic coating.
4. The illuminating device according to claim 2, wherein the circumferential wall of the light pipe is a dichromic mirror.
5. The illuminating device according to claim 1, wherein the reflector is an ellipse reflector.
6. The illuminating device according to claim 1, wherein the reflector is a reflector with an opening, and the opening is configured in such a manner that the light pipe is at least partially inserted into the reflector through the opening.
7. The illuminating device according to claim 6, wherein the light pipe comprises a first end and a second end, wherein the second end has a size smaller than that of the first end, and the light pipe is at least partially inserted into the ellipse reflector by the second end.
8. The illuminating device according to claim 1, wherein an optical axis of the light pipe passes through a focus of the reflector.
9. The illuminating device according to claim 7, wherein the light pipe receives, at the first end, the light having the first wavelength from the optical unit, and directs at the second end, the light having the first wavelength onto the exciter.
10. The illuminating device according to claim 5, wherein the exciter is provided at first focus of the ellipse reflector.
11. The illuminating device according to claim 6, wherein a distance between the exciter and the second end of the light pipe is 0.5 mm-1.0 mm.
12. The illuminating device according to claim 6, wherein the optical unit comprises collimating lenses, compression optics and a focus lens located in sequence on light path.
13. The illuminating device according to claim 5, wherein the ellipse reflector is a hollow ellipse reflector.
14. The illuminating device according to claim 13, wherein a reflective layer is coated on an end surface of the second end of the light pipe.
15. The illuminating device according to claim 5, wherein the ellipse reflector comprises a first portion and a second portion, wherein the first portion and the second portion are assembled with each other to define a cavity for inserting the light pipe.
16. The illuminating device according to claim 15, wherein inner surfaces and outer surfaces of the first portion and the second portion are configured to reflect the light having the second wavelength and to transmit the light having the first wavelength.
17. The illuminating device according to claim 2, wherein the light pipe is a quadrangular truncated cone, and the light pipe comprises four wall portions assembled together, and the wall portions jointly form the circumferential wall of the light pipe.
18. The illuminating device according to claim 2, wherein the light pipe is a circular truncated cone, and the light pipe comprises two semicylindrical wall portions assembled together, and the wall portions jointly form the circumferential wall of the light pipe.
19. The illuminating device according to claim 5, wherein the exciter comprises a plurality of areas having different excitation properties from each other.
20. The illuminating device according to claim 19, wherein the exciter is a phosphor.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
(1) In the drawings, like reference characters generally refer to the same parts throughout the different views. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead generally being placed upon illustrating the principles of the disclosed embodiments. In the following description, various embodiments described with reference to the following drawings, in which:
(2) FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 show prior illuminating devices, wherein light paths in an ideal situation and in an actual situation are shown, respectively;
(3) FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a first embodiment of an illuminating device according to the present disclosure;
(4) FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of light paths in a light pipe and in a reflector shown in FIG. 3;
(5) FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a second embodiment of an illuminating device according to the present disclosure;
(6) FIG. 6 shows a total internal reflection (TIR) effect generated within a circumferential wall of the light pipe;
(7) FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a third embodiment of an illuminating device according to the present invention for eliminating the total internal reflection effect as shown in FIG. 6;
(8) FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a fourth embodiment of an illuminating device according to the present disclosure;
(9) FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a method for manufacturing the light pipe of the illuminating device of the first to the fourth embodiments of the present disclosure;
(10) FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of light deviation caused by wall thickness of the light pipe; and
(11) FIG. 11 is a diagram showing relation between light deviation and incident angle.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
(12) The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawing that show, by way of illustration, specific details and embodiments in which the disclosure may be practiced.
(13) FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a first embodiment of an illuminating device 10 according to the present disclosure. The illuminating device 10 according to the present disclosure includes a light source 1, a plurality of collimating lenses 2, compression optics 3, a focus lens 4, a tapered light pipe 5, a phosphor 6 and an ellipse reflector 7 with an opening 70, wherein the light source 1 is a laser diode array including a plurality of laser diodes and emits, for instance, blue laser; the plurality of collimating lenses 2 are corresponding to the plurality of laser diodes of the light source 1, respectively, and configured to collimate blue laser from corresponding laser diode into parallel light; the compression optics 3 is configured to reduce intervals between parallel blue laser beams emitted from respective collimating lenses 2; the focus lens 4 is configured to converge the blue laser beams emitted from the compression optics 3; the tapered light pipe 5 is configured to receive the blue laser beams from the focus lens 4; the phosphor 6 is configured to convert the blue laser beams emitted from the tapered light pipe 5 into yellow light beams and to reflect the yellow light beams; and the phosphor 6 is provided in the first focus position (e.g. F1) of the ellipse reflector 7, and the ellipse reflector 7 is configured to reflect the yellow light beams reflected by the phosphor 6 to a second focus position (e.g. F2). In addition, the tapered light pipe 5 is partially inserted into the ellipse reflector 7, and an optical axis of light in the tapered light pipe 5 passes through the first focus position (F1) of the ellipse reflector 7 where the phosphor 6 is located and can be perpendicular to or form a certain angle with the phosphor 6 located at the focus F1.
(14) In order to enable the illuminating device to operate well, a circumferential wall of the tapered light pipe 5 is configured to reflect blue light beams and to transmit the yellow light beams, as shown in FIG. 4, wherein solid lines L1 represent light paths of the blue light beams in the tapered light pipe 5, and broken lines L2 represent light paths of the yellow light beams.
(15) As shown in FIG. 3, due to tolerance in practical manufacturing and the decentering and tilting in assembling of the collimating lens 2, the blue laser emitted from the collimating lens 2 is not parallel light, thus a light spot emitted from the focus lens 4 will be caused to be deviated and expanded (as shown in FIG. 2). By providing the tapered light pipe 5 and using one end thereof having a relative larger size to receive light from the focus lens 4, a accepting area of the converged laser beams is increased, so that the deviated light spot and expanded light spot also can be received, and as a result, the light efficiency of the illuminating device is improved.
(16) Besides, as shown in FIG. 4, FIG. 4 is the schematic diagram showing light paths in the tapered light pipe 5 and in the ellipse reflector 7, the blue laser beams (solid lines L1) going into the tapered light pipe 5 are reflected and superposed several times in the tapered light pipe 5, and then exit from the tapered light pipe 5 onto the phosphor 6. The blue laser beams striking on the phosphor 6 are converted by the phosphor 6 into yellow light beams (broken lines L2), and the yellow light beams are scattered and reflected by the phosphor 6 onto the ellipse reflector 7, and then the ellipse reflector 7 reflects the yellow light beams L2 to the second focus position F2 of the ellipse reflector 7 and exit from the focus F2.
(17) Since the blue laser beams L1 are reflected and superposed several times in the tapered light pipe 5, the laser beams projecting from the tapered light pipe 5 onto the phosphor 6 are in a uniform distribution, and thus the phosphor 6 quenching by the laser beams can be prevented. Specifically, when the tapered light pipe has a length of 20 mm, a maximum illuminance on a focus plane is 99 W/mm.sup.2 when the laser beams enter the light pipe, and 10.6 W/mm.sup.2 when the laser beams exit from the light pipe.
(18) Besides, reference is still made to FIG. 3. Since the tapered light pipe 5 is inserted into the ellipse reflector 7, the illuminating device 10 is thus enabled to be compact and miniaturized. Specifically, when the tapered light pipe 5 has a length of about 20 mm and it is not inserted into the ellipse reflector 7, a total length of the illuminating device including other optical system for imaging on the phosphor 6 is longer than 100 mm, and when the tapered light pipe 5 is inserted into the ellipse reflector 7, the illuminating device 10 can become more compact.
(19) FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a second embodiment of an illuminating device according to the present disclosure. The second embodiment of the illuminating device 100 of the present disclosure is different from the first embodiment of the illuminating device 10 according to the present disclosure in that in the second embodiment, the tapered light pipe 5 is completely inserted into the ellipse reflector 7, such that the illuminating device 100 is further allowed to be compact and miniaturized.
(20) FIG. 6 shows a total internal reflection (TIR) effect generated within the circumferential wall of the light pipe. As shown in FIG. 6, when a part of yellow light (as indicated by dot line) reflected and scattered by the phosphor 6 is incident upon inner side of the circumferential wall of the light pipe 5, since the circumferential wall of the light pipe 5 has a characteristics of making yellow light transmitted therethrough, this part of light transmits the circumferential wall of the light pipe 5 to be incident upon the reflector 7. However, another part of yellow light (as indicated by dash dot line) reflected from the phosphor 6 is incident upon an end surface of a lower end of the light pipe 5 and transmits therethrough to go into the circumferential wall of the light pipe 5, moreover, this part of yellow light will be totally internally reflected within the circumferential wall and tapped inside the circumferential wall, i.e. so-called total internal reflection effect phenomenon, thus, the light efficiency will be reduced.
(21) In order to avoid the above problem, inventors of the present disclosure propose to coat a reflective layer on the end surface of the lower end of the light pipe 5, so that the yellow light beams incident upon the end surface are reflected back to the phosphor 6 instead of entering the circumferential wall of the light pipe 5, and the yellow light beams reflected back to the phosphor 6 are again reflected by the phosphor 6 to arrive at the ellipse reflector 7, as shown in FIG. 7. Besides, a small part of blue laser (not shown) will be reflected by the phosphor 6 onto the end surface so as to generate the total internal reflection effect, in which situation, due to provision of the reflective layer, that small part of blue laser reflected onto the end surface of the light pipe also will be reflected back to the phosphor 6, so that the conversion efficiency of the phosphor 6 is improved, and the light efficiency of the illuminating device is correspondingly improved.
(22) FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a third embodiment of an illuminating device according to the present disclosure for eliminating the total internal reflection effect as shown in FIG. 6. The third embodiment of the illuminating device of the present disclosure is different from the second embodiment of the illuminating device 100 of the present disclosure in that a reflective layer 55 is coated on the end surface of the lower end of the light pipe 5. The reflective layer 55 can be a normal reflective film of visible light wavelength. With such configuration, occurrence of TIR effect can be avoided, and thus, this part of light still can be re-utilized, and the light efficiency of the illuminating device can be improved.
(23) FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a fourth embodiment of an illuminating device 200 according to the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 8, the fourth embodiment of the illuminating device 200 of the present disclosure is different from the second embodiment of illuminating device 100 of the present disclosure in that in the fourth embodiment, the ellipse reflector 7 includes a first glass block 7.1 and a second glass block 7.2, and the first glass block 7.1 and the second glass block 7.2 are assembled with each other by, for instance, bonding through glue or mechanical fitment, to define a cavity for inserting the light pipe 5. In addition, inner surfaces and outer surfaces of the first glass block 7.1 and the second glass block 7.2 are coated with a coating that reflects yellow light beams and transmits blue light beams. In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 8, the blue laser beams transmit through the ellipse reflector 7 made of glass blocks to enter the tapered light pipe 5, and exit after reflected several times within the tapered light pipe 5. The blue laser beams exited from the tapered light pipe 5 are projected onto the phosphor 6, the blue laser beams projected on the phosphor 6 are converted by the phosphor 6 into yellow light beams, the yellow light beams are reflected by the phosphor 6 to the ellipse reflector 7, and then the yellow light beams are reflected by the ellipse reflector 7 onto the second focus position F2 of the ellipse reflector 7 and exit from the focus F2. As a result, the same effect as that of the second embodiment of the illuminating device according to the present disclosure can be realized. In addition, the TIR phenomenon (as shown in FIG. 6) also can be avoided in the fourth embodiment of the illuminating device according to the present disclosure, because the ellipse reflector 7 is made of glass blocks that can again reflect back that part of yellow light beams and the blue light beams reflected and scattered from the phosphor 6 to the phosphor 6, and thus, this part of blue light beams and yellow light beams can be re-utilized, which also can achieve the effect of improving the light efficiency of the illuminating device.
(24) Further, in the above first to fourth embodiments, a better light collection efficiency also can be obtained at the second focus F2 of the ellipse reflector 7 by modifying and optimizing a curved surface of the ellipse reflector 7, thereby, the efficiency of the illuminating device is further improved.
(25) The person skilled in the art should note that, though the blue laser beams and the yellow light beams are taken as examples in the first to fourth embodiments, that is, the blue laser diode array is used as the light source 1, and the yellow phosphor is used as the phosphor 6, the present disclosure is not limited to the above. The blue laser light beams and the yellow light beams also can be light of other colors, for example, the red laser diode array and the green laser diode array can be used as the light source 1 so that the red laser beams and the green laser beams can be instead of the blue laser beams, also the blue phosphor, the red phosphor or the green phosphor can be used as the phosphor 6 so that the blue light, the red light or the green light can be emitted instead of the yellow light, which can be changed according to practical requirements, and the configuration of light pipe can be adjusted accordingly. Similarly, though the ellipse reflector is taken as an example for description, the present disclosure is not limited to the same, and reflectors having other configurations, e.g. aspherical reflector and parabolic reflector, can be used.
(26) For instance, in a situation that a parabolic reflector is used, light emitted from the reflector is parallel light, in this case, the illuminating device can be used for stage illumination, searchlight, etc.
(27) FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a method for manufacturing the light pipe of the illuminating device of the first to the fourth embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 9, a schematic diagram of a method for manufacturing the light pipe is given by taking a quadrangular truncated cone light pipe as an example. Firstly, a quadrangular truncated cone solid rod 50 having a dimension substantially the same as that of the cavity of the light pipe is prepared, and then, four pieces of dichromic mirrors 51 are adhered to four sidewalls of the quadrilateral tapered solid rod by using an adhesive such as glue, so that the four dichromic mirrors 51 are assembled together, and thereafter, the quadrangular truncated cone solid rod 50 is removed so as to manufacture a quadrangular truncated cone light pipe 5.
(28) The person ordinarily skilled in the art should understand that method for manufacturing the light pipe of the present disclosure is not limited to the above example, and other manufacturing methods are also feasible as long as the circumferential wall of the light pipe of the present disclosure is enabled to have the function of reflecting excited light such as blue laser beams and transmitting excited light such as yellow light beams. For instance, the light pipe of the present disclosure can be manufactured by using the manufacturing method as shown in FIG. 9 after four glass sheets are coated with a dichromic coating through an existing coating process. Alternately, in the present disclosure, a circular truncated cone light pipe can be formed by plating a dichromic coating on two semicylindrical glass sheets through an existing coating process and using a method similar to the manufacturing method as shown in FIG. 9.
(29) In addition, as for the light pipe, since the circumferential wall of the light pipe can reflect excited light such as blue laser beams and transmit excited light such as yellow light beams, the light pipe will not affect the function of the reflector. But the wall thickness of the light pipe will affect the light efficiency of the illuminating device 10. FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of light deviation caused by wall thickness of the light pipe. As shown in FIG. 10, when light beams reflected from the phosphor are incident upon an inner wall of the light pipe, the light beams will be deviated to a certain degree when emerging from an outer wall of the light pipe due to influence of refraction. As shown in FIG. 11, the bigger the incident angle is, the more the deviation is, and a relation between deviation Δ, wall thickness d of the light pipe, and angles θ.sub.1 and θ.sub.2 is Δ=d.sup.x(1−tg(θ.sub.2)/tg(θ.sub.1)), according to which, it can be obtained that a maximum deviation Δ equals the wall thickness d of the light pipe. Such light deviation will cause the phosphor to appear bigger, for instance, as shown by the broken lines to the left of the phosphor in FIG. 10, thus, a bigger equivalent light spot will be generated at the focus F2, resulting a reduced light collecting efficiency of the ellipse reflector.
(30) In addition, the phosphor in the above embodiments of the present disclosure can be made into a wheel shape and includes a plurality of regions each of which generates light having a different wavelength upon excitation, e.g. blue light, red light, green light and yellow light. In particular, the plurality of regions are the blue phosphor, the red phosphor and the green phosphor, respectively, so that the blue light, the red light and the green light can be emitted from the illuminating device. The illuminating device having such configuration can be used in a DLP projector.
(31) While the disclosed embodiments have been particularly shown and described with reference to specific embodiments, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosed embodiments as defined by the appended claims. The scope of the disclosed embodiments is thus indicated by the appended claims and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced.
