Optical diffusion device

Abstract

An optical diffusion device applied in a backlight module includes a plate, multiple light sources being disposed on one side of the plate; multiple optical microstructure provided with a longer axis and a shorter axis being disposed on the plate; a direction of the longer axis of each optical microstructure being approximately arranged in parallel with a direction extending from the light source, or a direction of the shorter axis being arranged approximately crossing a direction extending from the light source; better diffusion effect being provided to each light source through the shorter axis of the optical microstructure to increase optical quantum among light sources thus to eliminate the dim and dark regions among light sources for increasing general luminance of the backlight module.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

(a) Field of the Invention

The present invention is related to an optical diffusion device, and more particularly, to one applied in a backlight module to effectively distribute streams of light from light source for increasing luminance of the entire backlight module.

(b) Description of the Prior Art

A backlight module is generally referred to a component that provide a back light source to a product and is currently applied in various types of information, communication, and consumer products, e.g., liquid crystal display (LCD), negative scanner, slider, or light panel for slides. Depending on the location of the light from its source to enter, the backlight module is available in edge lighting and bottom lighting. The edge lighting backlight module is usually applied in products, e.g., portable computer that require power-saving, thinner and lighter in construction. To meet the requirements, a light source is usually provided on an edge of the backlight module, and a light guide plate is disposed to guide streams of light emitted from the light source to a display panel.

The bottom light backlight module is usually applied in a product that requires higher brightness, e.g. a TV set. As illustrated in FIG. 1, a bottom light backlight module 1 is comprised of a frame 11, a reflective coating is applied or a reflection film 12 is attached on an inner side of the frame 11; multiple light sources 13 are arranged and spaced at interval in sequence; a diffuser 14 is disposed over those light sources 13; one or a plurality of optical diffusion film 15 and one or a plurality of brightness enhancing film (BEF) 16 is disposed are disposed on the diffuser 14; and finally a display panel 17 is placed on top of the BEF to form a TFT-LCD.

Whereas the purpose of the optical diffusion device including the diffuser or diffusion film is only to permit uniform diffusion of the light passing through; its effects to improve a phenomenon of dim and dark regions found with the liquid crystal module. Therefore, an improvement attempted to narrow down the dim and dark regions by extending a gap between those light sources 12 and the diffuser 13 for admitting more streams of light emitted form those light sources 12 into the diffuser 13; however, the structural design of the improvement for providing limited effect and causing the backlight module to get thicker defies the purpose of having a compact design for the liquid crystal module.

There are two types of process for manufacturing an optical diffusion device. One process involves formation of microstructures for diffusion on a surface of a substrate and another process is to coat micro-particles on the surface of the substrate or mix them in the substrate. The process of coating those micro-particles usually fails to high uniformity and high yield; limited number of micro-particles to be coated fails to upgrade diffusion efficiency; and micro-particles could easily scratch other devices. The diffusion efficiency may be upgraded by mixing those micro-particles with the substrate, the light permeability remains low.

The microstructure formed on the surface of the substrate indicates either irregularly fluctuating frosted glass structure or regular lens array. The frosted glass type of structure was earlier used in the light diffusion structure, but its diffusion rate is low and its diffusion direction is at random to fail providing diffusion in a given direction for a device including fluorescent tube. Cylindrical lens array effectively control diffusion direction and is currently designed in a form of continuous arc, sine wave, triangle, or square. The lens array is applied in a bottom lighting backlight module in an LCD as disclosed in US2003/0184993A1 and Japanese 2000-75102; wherein the former applies the lens array in a bottom lighting backlight module in an LCD to achieve diffusion effect and the latter applies a sine wave lens array in a collector. The design of continuous arcs with each greater than a semicircle achieve the best optical diffusion. As illustrated in FIGS. 2(A) and 2(B), multiple cylindrical lenses 18 each in a sine wave form or any other form however fails to deliver effect of uniform diffusion of streams of light emitted from the light source (the arrow indicates the incident beams). Therefore, any of those optical diffusion devices fails to solve the problem of dim and dark regions found with a backlight module of the prior art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The primary purpose of the present invention is to provide an optical diffusion device that is applied in a backlight module to increase light among light sources thus to upgrade the general luminance of the backlight module.

To achieve the purpose, the optical diffusion device of the present invention is essentially comprised of a plate, and multiple light sources being disposed on one side of the plate to permit streams of light emitted from those light sources are uniformly diffused through the optical diffusion device; wherein the plate includes multiple optical microstructures respectively of longer axis and shorter axis with the direction of the longer axis of each optical microstructure approximately in parallel with a direction extending from the light source.

Whereas the curvature of the shorter axis is greater than that of the longer axis, diffusion effect in the direction of the longer axis is way below than that in the direction of the shorter axis. By having the direction of the longer axis of each optical microstructure arranged in approximately parallel with the direction extending from the light source or having the direction of the shorter axis of each optical microstructure arranged approximately crossing with the direction extending from the light source, a better diffusion effect is achieved for the light passing through the shorter axis of each optical microstructure thus to increase the light among multiple light sources for eliminating the dim and dark regions among those light sources to increase the general luminance of the backlight module.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a construction of a bottom lighting backlight module of the prior art.

FIGS. 2 (A) and 2 (B) are schematic views showing a construction of an optical diffusion device of the prior art.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a construction of an optical diffusion device with light sources of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing a construction of a first preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic view showing a construction in A-A direction taken from FIG. 3.

FIG. 6 is a schematic view showing a construction of a second preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic view showing a construction of a third preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a schematic view showing a construction of a fourth preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a schematic view showing a construction of a fifth preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing a construction of the present invention applied in a backlight module.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to FIG. 3, an optical diffusion device 2 of the present invention is essentially comprised of a plate 21 provided with an incident plane 211 and an irradiation plane 212 opposite to the incident plane 211; multiple light sources 3 are disposed on one side of the plate below the incident plane 211 so that light emitted from those light sources 3 are uniformly distributed through the optical diffusion device 2.

The plate 21 contains multiple optical microstructures 22 respectively in longer axis and shorter axis with each microstructure 22 being disposed on the irradiation plane 212 in a first preferred embodiment as illustrated in FIG. 4 and a project of each optical microstructure 22 on the irradiation plane 212 can be in an oval shape. Each optical microstructure 22 as illustrated in FIG. 5 is related to an oval hemispheric structure provided with a longer axis 221 and a shorter axis 222 with the longer axis 221 provided in a direction that is approximately in parallel with a direction 31 extending from the light source 3.

When applied in general as also illustrated in FIG. 5, the diffusion effect is less satisfactory in the direction of the longer axis 221 than that in the direction of the shorter axis 222 since a curvature of the shorter axis 222 is greater than that of the longer axis 221. By taking advantage that the direction of the longer axis 221 of each optical microstructure being approximately in parallel with the direction 31 extending from the light source 3, streams of light P1 (assuming that the quantum is 100%) upon entering into those optical microstructures 22, a comparatively poor diffusion effect is achieved for those streams of light passing through the longer axis 221 (if the optical quantum P2 irradiated from the longer axis is 40%) while a better diffusion effect is achieve for those streams of light passing through the shorter axis 222 (then the optical quantum irradiated P3 from the shorter axis is 60%). That is, the optical quantum irradiated from a direction extending from the light source 3 is lower and that going toward where among those light sources 3 is higher thus to increase the optical quantum among those light sources to eliminate the dim and dark regions otherwise existing among those light sources for increasing a general luminance of the backlight module.

In a second preferred embodiment as illustrated in FIG. 6, multiple optical microstructures 22 are arranged at random on the irradiation plane 212 of the plate 21; each optical microstructure 22 is related to a structure in an oval hemispheric shape provided with the longer axis 221 and the shorter axis 222; a direction of the longer axis 221 is approximately in parallel with a direction 31 extending from the light source 3; multiple optical microstructure 22 are more intensively arranged over those light sources 31; and the optical microstructure 22 may be made in a stick shape in a third preferred embodiment as illustrated in FIG. 7.

Multiple optical microstructures 22 are arranged at random on the irradiation plane 212 of the plate 21 in a fourth preferred embodiment as illustrated in FIG. 8, wherein the optical microstructure 22 is related to a structure in a rhombus cylindrical shape provided with a long axis 221 and a shorter axis 222 and the direction of the short axis 222 is approximately crossing with the direction 31 extending from the light source 3.

In a fifth preferred embodiment as illustrated in FIG. 9, multiple optical microstructures 22 are disposed on the irradiation plane 212 of the plate 21 with each optical microstructure 22 protruding from a surface of the irradiation plane 212; additional multiple microstructures 22 are disposed on the incident plane 211 with each optical microstructure 22 recessed in a surface of the incident plane 211.

FIG. 10 shows a perspective view of a construction of having the optical diffusion device of the present invention applied in the backlight module. A first LCD panel 4 is disposed between multiple light sources 3 and the optical diffusion device 2; a second LCD Panel 5 is disposed on the optical diffusion device 2 so to provide a 3D display; and multiple optical microstructures 22 are disposed on the irradiation plane 212 of the optical diffusion device 2 to correct a moiré effect found with the prior art that creates bright and dark ripples in vision.

When compared to the prior art, the present invention provides the following advantages:

1. The microstructure is provided with longer and shorter axes to produce different diffusion effects for effectively distribution streams light emitted from light sources.

2. By having the direction of the longer axis of those optical microstructures arranged in approximately parallel with the direction extending from the light source or having the direction of the shorter axis of those optical microstructures arranged approximately in crossing the direction extending form the light source for providing better diffusion effect to the light source through the shorter axis of those optical microstructures, the optical quantum is increased among those light sources to eliminate the dim and dark regions otherwise existing among those light sources for increasing the general luminance of the backlight module.

3. With the optical diffusion device of the present invention applied in a 3D display and the optical diffusion device of the present invention disposed between the first and the second LCD panels, the moiré effect found with a 3D display of the prior art to create ripples in vision is corrected.

The prevent invention provides an improved structure of a optical diffusion device, and the application for a utility patent is duly filed accordingly. However, it is to be noted that the preferred embodiments disclosed in the specification and the accompanying drawings are not limiting the present invention; and that any construction, installation, or characteristics that is same or similar to that of the present invention should fall within the scope of the purposes and claims of the present invention.

Claims

1. An optical diffusion device comprising a plate provided thereon multiple optical microstructures; and multiple light sources disposed on one side of the plate wherein each optical microstructure being disposed with a longer axis and a shorter axis; a direction of the longer axis of each optical microstructure being approximately arranged in parallel with a direction extending from the light sources.

2. The optical diffusion device as claimed in Claimed in claim 1, wherein the plate is disposed with an incident plane and an irradiation plane opposite to the incident plane; multiple light sources are disposed at where below the incident plane; each optical microstructure is disposed on the irradiation plane; and additional multiple optical microstructures are more intensively arranged over those multiple light sources.

3. The optical diffusion device as claimed in claim 2, wherein each optical microstructure is further provided on the incident plane.

4. The optical diffusion device as claimed in claim 2, wherein a projection from each optical microstructure on the irradiation plane is related to an oval shape.

5. The optical diffusion device as claimed in claim 1, wherein each optical microstructure is related to a structure in an oval hemispherical, rhombus cylindrical or stick form.

6. The optical diffusion device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the plate is disposed with an incident plane and an irradiation plate opposite to the incident plane, multiple light sources are disposed at where below the incident plane; multiple optical microstructures are disposed on the irradiation plane; a first LCD panel is disposed between those light sources and the optical diffusion device; and a second LCD panel is disposed on the optical diffusion device to display 3D image.

7. The optical diffusion device as claimed in claim 6, wherein multiple optical microstructures are further disposed on the incident plane.

8. An optical diffusion device comprising: a plate provided thereof multiple optical microstructures; and multiple light sources disposed on one side of the plate; wherein each optical microstructure being disposed with a longer axis and a shorter axis; a direction of the shorter axis of each optical microstructure approximately crossing a direction extending from the light sources.

9. The optical diffusion device as claimed in claim 8, wherein the plate is disposed with an incident plane and an irradiation plane opposite to the incident plane; multiple light sources are disposed at where below the incident plane; each optical microstructure is disposed on the irradiation plane; and additional multiple optical microstructures are more intensively arranged over those multiple light sources.

10. The optical diffusion device as claimed in claim 9, wherein each optical microstructure is further provided on the incident plane.

11. The optical diffusion device as claimed in claim 8, wherein each optical microstructure is related to a structure in an oval hemispherical, rhombus cylindrical or stick form.

12. The optical diffusion device as claimed in claim 8, wherein the plate is disposed with an incident plane and an irradiation plate opposite to the incident plane, multiple light sources are disposed at where below the incident plane; multiple optical microstructures are disposed on the irradiation plane; a first LCD panel is disposed between those light sources and the optical diffusion device; and a second LCD panel is disposed on the optical diffusion device to display 3D image.

13. The optical diffusion device as claimed in claim 12, wherein each optical microstructure is further provided on the incident plane.