Patent Application
20140192552
This application claims the benefit of People's Republic of China patent application No. 201310003380.X, filed Jan. 6, 2013, which application is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to liquid crystal display technique, and particularly relates to a backlight module.
2. The Related Arts
A liquid crystal display (LCD) device contains a display module for presenting images and a backlight module for illumination. Currently most LCD backlight modules employ light emitting diodes (LEDs) as light source due to their high efficiency and energy saving.
To achieve further energy saving, the number of LEDs employed in a LCD backlight module has to be reduced. However, this reduction could affect the backlight module's quality to a certain degree.
As such, how to reduce the LEDs as many as possible without sacrificing the backlight module's quality is a major challenge to the existing backlight module design.
The technical issue to be addressed by the present invention is to provide a backlight module to greatly reduce energy consumption and to achieve better environmental friendliness while improving illumination efficiency and lighting uniformity with a simplified structure.
To address the technical issue, the present invention provides a backlight module, containing a collection device for collecting sunlight, an optical fiber cable, at least a light guide device connecting the collection device through the optical fiber cable, and a diffusion device and an optical member fixed at a distance from a side of each light guide device. The sunlight is collected by the collection device and is introduced into each light guide device. Each light guide device then guides and projects the collected sunlight onto the diffusion device and the optical member sequentially. Each light guide device has an incident end and a distant end. The optical fiber cable has one end connected to the collection device and the other end connected to the incident end of each light guide device. The collected sunlight travels along each light guide device from the incident end towards the distant end.
Alternatively, a reflection piece is attached to the distant end of each light guide device to reflect light not guided out by the light guide device.
Alternatively, there are at least two light guide devices, each pair of adjacent light guide devices has a specific distance in between, and the incident ends of the light guide devices are positioned at a same side of the backlight module.
Alternatively, each light guide device is a light guide strip.
Alternatively, each light guide device has a flat top side, or has prism structure on the top side.
Alternatively, the diffusion device is a diffusion plate, and the optical member is an optical film.
To address the technical issue, the present invention further provides a backlight module, containing a collection device for collecting sunlight, an optical fiber cable, at least a light guide device connecting the collection device through the optical fiber cable, and a diffusion device and an optical member fixed at a distance from a side of each light guide device. Sunlight is collected by the collection device and is introduced into each light guide device. Each light guide device then guides and projects the collected sunlight onto the diffusion device and the optical member sequentially. Each light guide device has both ends as incident ends. The optical fiber cable has one end connected to the collection device and the other end connected to the incident ends of each light guide device.
Alternatively, there are at least two light guide devices, and each pair of adjacent light guide devices has a specific distance in between.
To address the technical issue, the present invention further provides a backlight module, containing a collection device for collecting sunlight, an optical fiber cable, at least a light guide device connecting the collection device through the optical fiber cable, and a diffusion device and an optical member fixed at a distance from a side of each light guide device. Sunlight is collected by the collection device and is introduced into each light guide device. Each light guide device then guides and projects the collected sunlight onto the diffusion device and the optical member sequentially.
Alternatively, a number of grid dots are configured along a bottom side of each light guide device, and the collected sunlight is guided out of each light guide device by the grid dots.
Alternatively, the grid dots are outwardly bulged or inwardly indented structures.
Alternatively, the grid dots are uniformly arranged along the bottom side of each light guide device by printing or injection molding, and the backlight module further contains a reflection device positioned beneath the grid dots of each light guide device.
Alternatively, each light guide device has an incident end and a distant end, the optical fiber cable has one end connected to the collection device and the other end connected to the incident end of each light guide device, and the collected sunlight travels along each light guide device from the incident end towards the distant end.
Alternatively, a reflection piece is attached to the distant end of each light guide device to reflect light not guided out by the light guide device.
Alternatively, there are at least two light guide devices; each pair of adjacent light guide devices has a specific distance in between; and the incident ends of the light guide devices are positioned at a same side of the backlight module.
Alternatively, each light guide device has both ends as incident ends, and the optical fiber cable has one end connected to the collection device and the other end connected to the incident ends of each light guide device.
Alternatively, there are at least two light guide devices; and each pair of adjacent light guide devices has a specific distance in between.
Alternatively, each light guide device is a light guide strip.
Alternatively, each light guide device has a flat top side, or has prism structure on the top side.
Alternatively, the diffusion device is a diffusion plate; and the optical member is an optical film.
The advantage of the present invention is as follows. The sunlight collected by the collection device is introduced into one or more light guide devices through optical fiber cable, the light guide devices then guide and project the collected sunlight sequentially on the diffusion device and optical member so as to achieve uniform backlight illumination. The backlight module of the present invention uses sunlight as an independent light source to replace LEDs. The energy consumption and environmental friendliness are therefore greatly enhanced. The light guide devices function just like light guide plate to project sunlight onto optical film, thereby achieving better illumination efficiency. In addition, as grid dots are configured on the light guide devices, the uniformity of illumination is improved.
To make the technical solution of the embodiments according to the present invention, a brief description of the drawings that are necessary for the illustration of the embodiments will be given as follows. Apparently, the drawings described below show only example embodiments of the present invention and for those having ordinary skills in the art, other drawings may be easily obtained from these drawings without paying any creative effort. In the drawings:
Together with the accompanied drawings, detailed description to the embodiments of the present invention is provided as follows
In a cross-sectional diagram of the present embodiment as illustrated in
The optical fiber cable 2 transmits the sunlight collected by the collection device 1 to the light guide device 3. The light guide device 3 then transmits and projects the collected sunlight towards the diffusion device 4 and the optical member 5 sequentially.
The collection device 1, in alternative embodiments, can be replaced by, for example, a sunlight collection device, a sunlight collection system, etc. The major function of the collection device 1 is to collect the clean and regenerative solar energy.
The optical fiber cable 2 connecting the collection device 1 and the light guide device 3 can contain a single fiber or fiber bundle in various embodiments. Its function is to guide the sunlight collected by the collection device 1 into the light guide device 3.
In the present embodiment, there are multiple light guide devices 3 and, correspondingly, each light guide device 3 is connected to an end of a fiber or a fiber bundle of the optical fiber cable 2. The other ends of the fibers or fiber bundles are connected to the collection device 1.
The function of each light guide device 3 is to guide the collected sunlight from the optical fiber cable 2 and, through the diffusion device 4 and the optical member 5, to form uniform backlight.
In a perspective diagram of the present embodiment as illustrated in
Since the arrangement of the light guide strips determines the illumination effect of the backlight module, the present embodiment has the light guide strips symmetrically aligned in parallel equally spaced apart so as to achieve uniform illumination.
Each light guide strip has an incident end A and a distant end B. As shown in
Preferably, a reflection piece 7 is attached to the side of each light guide strip's distant end B so as to reflect the light not guided out by the light guide strips and as such reaching the distant ends B. The reflection pieces 7 help enhancing the utilization efficiency of the collected light.
The uniform guiding of the collected light by the light guide strips is achieved by the following structures. A first embodiment of the light guide strip is illustrated in a sectional diagram in
A number of grid dots 8 are configured along a bottom side of each light guide device 3. When the collected light C is introduced through the optical fiber cable 2 into a light guide device 3, and as the collected light C travels along the light guide device 3, the collected light C is reflected by the grid dots 8 and as such guided out of the light guide device 3.
In the present embodiment, each grid dot 8 bulges outward with semi-spherical cross section. The grid dots 8 can be formed by printing or injection molding.
Since the arrangement of the grid dots 8 affects the uniformity of the out-guided light, in the present embodiment, the grid dots 8 are uniformly configured on the bottom side of each light guide device 3. A reflection device 6 is fixed on a back plate 9 and is positioned beneath the grid dots 8. In the present embodiment, the reflection device 6 is the reflection plate.
Each light guide strip has a flat top side. At a distance above the flat top side of each light guide strip, the diffusion device 4 (e.g., a diffusion plate) and the optical member 5 (e.g., an optical film) are sequentially arranged. The light guided out by each light guide strip then projects on the diffusion plate 4 and the optical film 5 sequentially. As such, a uniformly illuminating backlight module is achieved.
A second embodiment of the light guide strip is illustrated in a sectional diagram in
In alternative embodiments, the grid dots 8 can be embodied in various uniformly arrangements of outwardly bulged or inwardly indented structures. As illustrated in
It should be understandable that the grid dots 8 can be arranged on other places such on the middle and lower sections of the light guide strips' lateral sides, in addition to along the bottom sides of the light guide strips, without affecting the illuminating effect. Additionally, instead of having flat top sides, the light guide strips can have prism structures arranged along the length of the light guide strips.
According to the present embodiment of the backlight module, the light guide devices 3 are actually an integral part of the backlight module, achieving even simpler structure.
In a perspective diagram of the present embodiment as illustrated in
The present embodiment also adopts the same grid dots 8 structured as shown in
A backlight module according to the present invention has the following effect. The sunlight collected by the collection device is introduced into one or more light guide devices through optical fiber cable, the light guide devices then guide and project the collected sunlight sequentially on the diffusion device and optical member so as to achieve uniform backlight illumination. The backlight module of the present invention uses sunlight as an independent light source to replace LEDs. The energy consumption and environmental friendliness are therefore greatly enhanced. The light guide devices function just like light guide plate to project sunlight onto optical film, thereby achieving better illumination efficiency. In addition, as grid dots are configured on the light guide devices, the uniformity of illumination is improved.
Embodiments of the present invention have been described, but not intending to impose any unduly constraint to the appended claims. Any modification of equivalent structure or equivalent process made according to the disclosure and drawings of the present invention, or any application thereof, directly or indirectly, to other related fields of technique, is considered encompassed in the scope of protection defined by the clams of the present invention.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 201310003380.X | Jan 2013 | CN | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/CN13/70428 | 1/14/2013 | WO | 00 | 2/19/2013 |
