EP1853968A2 — Four panel projection system

USPTO Abstract

A four-panel liquid-crystal-on-silicon (LCOS) projection display system utilizes four available ports of a beam splitter and polarization filter architecture to provide a four-color component image with an increased brightness and color gamut compared with typical three-color component images. The projection display system includes a light source, four light modulating panels, a light directing subsystem, and a projection lens. The light source is operable to generate light having four color components. Each of the four light modulators is operable to generate a respective image associated with the respective one of the four-color components. The light directing subsystem is operable to split the four-color components before modulation and recombine them after modulation, and each light modulator is located at a separate port of the light directing subsystem. The projection lens is operable to project an image of the modulated combined color components.