JPH09185046A - Display device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a display device capable of displaying a picture having no gap by the use of plural display elements. SOLUTION: The display device is constituted of 1st and 2nd liquid crystal display elements 11A, 11B arranged so that their display available areas are separated from each other only by a distance (d), back lights 12A, 12B, refraction plates 13A, 13B, collimation films 14A, 14B, and a diffusion plate 15. The cross sections of the upper and lower faces of the plates 13A, 13B are formed like saw teeth. The refraction plate 13A refracts light from the display element 11A twice so as to shift the light by d/2 to the side of the display element 11B in parallel. The refraction plate 13B refracts light from the display element 11B twice so as to shift the light by d/2 to the side of the display element 11A in parallel. Thereby display pictures on the display elements 11A, 11B are displayed as one picture having no gap.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a large-screen display device composed by combining a plurality of small display elements.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A technique for forming a large screen by combining a plurality of small display elements is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-341.
310, JP-A-5-107535, JP-B-7-5654
8 is disclosed.

In the display device disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 5-341310, a plurality of gradient index lenses are arranged on the liquid crystal display element in a tilted manner, whereby the display images of the plurality of liquid crystal display elements are moved in parallel, Display continuous images with no gaps.

In the display device disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 5-107535, a large number of transparent thin films are superposed on each other in the thickness direction on a plurality of liquid crystal display elements arranged side by side on the same plane, and their heads are placed on each other. By arranging them in contact with each other, the display images of a plurality of liquid crystal display elements are connected and displayed without a gap.

In the display device disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 7-56548, a liquid crystal display is provided with a light guide whose center distance increases as the distance from the display surface increases and a Fresnel lens for refracting the light guided by the guide perpendicularly to the display surface. It is arranged for each pixel of the device, and the display images of a plurality of liquid crystal display devices are connected and displayed without a gap.

By using these techniques, a large-screen display device can be constructed without using a large-screen display element which is difficult to manufacture.

[0007]

However, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-3
In the display device disclosed in 41310, the angle of incidence on the gradient index lens is limited to within a predetermined angle. Further, the light emitted from the gradient index lens is not parallel and is emitted with a predetermined angle, so that the light utilization efficiency is reduced. Further, in the display device disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 5-107535, it is necessary to arrange a large number of transparent thin films so as to overlap each other in the thickness direction thereof, which is difficult to manufacture. Further, in the display device disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 7-56548, it is necessary to form a light guide for each pixel and process the Fresnel lens with pixel size accuracy, which is difficult to manufacture.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a display device which is easy to manufacture, has high light utilization efficiency, and can display a continuous image.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, a display device according to a first aspect of the present invention comprises a plurality of display elements arranged apart from each other, and light emission of the plurality of display elements. The upper and lower surfaces are formed in a sawtooth shape, and the incident light from each of the display elements is refracted twice in a predetermined direction to emit light parallel to the incident light. It is characterized by comprising a refraction plate that optically shifts and connects display images of a display element to form one image having substantially no gap.

According to the display device having such a structure, the images from the respective display elements are shifted so that they are in contact with each other.
Incident light from each display element is refracted twice by a refraction plate and emitted in parallel with the incident light. Therefore, by connecting the images of a plurality of display elements, it is possible to display one large image.

The refraction plate shifts the display image of the first display element parallel to the direction of the second display element by a predetermined distance, and the first refraction plate displays the display image of the second display element. And a second refraction plate that shifts in parallel to the direction of the display element by a predetermined distance.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a display device, wherein a plurality of display elements are arranged apart from each other, and a display image of the plurality of display elements is arranged on a light emitting side of the plurality of display elements. Refraction for transmitting light emitted from the plurality of display elements by an optical fiber and for emitting light parallel to the incident light so as to form one image having substantially no gaps by optically shifting and connecting It is characterized by being composed of a plate.

According to the display device having such a configuration, the light emitted from each display element is transmitted using the optical fiber so that the images of the respective display elements are shifted and brought into contact with each other, and emitted in parallel with the incident light. . Therefore, by connecting the images of a plurality of display elements, it is possible to display one large image.

Further, in the refraction plate in the display device according to the second aspect, at least one of the upper surface and the lower surface of the fiber plate formed by integrating the optical fibers may have a saw-like cross section, Further, a resin plate having a sawtooth cross section may be arranged on at least one of the upper surface and the lower surface of the fiber plate.

A means for irradiating the plurality of display elements with parallel light may be provided. Thereby, the light utilization efficiency can be improved.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A display device according to this embodiment will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a sectional structure of this display device. As shown in the drawing, this display device includes first and second liquid crystal display elements 11A and 11B in which effective display areas are arranged on the same plane with a distance d therebetween.
Backlights 12A and 12B arranged on the back surfaces of the liquid crystal display elements 11A and 11B, and backlights 12A and 12B
Collimation film 14 disposed on the light emitting surface of the
A, 14B, refraction plates 13A, 13B arranged on the front surfaces (light emission surfaces) of the liquid crystal display elements 11A, 11B, and a diffusion plate 15 arranged on the light emission surfaces of the refraction plates 13A, 13B. There is.

First and second liquid crystal display elements 11A and 11B
Is composed of a liquid crystal cell and polarizing plates arranged so as to sandwich the liquid crystal cell. As shown in FIG. 2, the backlight 1
2A and 12B are composed of a fluorescent lamp 121, a light guide plate 122 and the like. Collimation film 14A, 14B
Is composed of an array of a plurality of micro-prisms and micro-lenses 141 that emit the received light in parallel within a predetermined angle (± 10 °). The refraction plates 13A and 13B are made of a substance such as acryl having a refractive index of 1.0 or more, and the upper and lower surfaces thereof are processed into a sawtooth shape (Frennel shape).

In such a structure, the backlight 1
The light emitted from 2A and 12B is directed in various directions. The collimation films 14A and 14B emit light from the backlights 12A and 12B as substantially parallel light within a predetermined angle. This parallel light is generated by the liquid crystal display element 11.
After passing through A and 11B, the parallel light enters the refracting plates 13A and 13B as they are.

When the light passing through the liquid crystal display element 11A is incident on the refraction plate 13A, the light is transmitted through the liquid crystal display element 11B.
Is refracted by a predetermined angle. Next, when the light refracted by a predetermined angle is emitted, the refraction plate 13A refracts the light again by the predetermined angle, and emits the light in parallel with the incident light. On the other hand, the refraction plate 1
When the light passing through the liquid crystal display element 11B is incident, the light 3B refracts the light by a predetermined angle toward the liquid crystal display element 11A. Next, when the light refracted by a predetermined angle is emitted, the refraction plate 13B refracts the light again by the predetermined angle and emits the light in parallel with the incident light. The diffusion plate 15 is a refraction plate 13A, 13B.
The parallel light from is diffused in various directions.

According to this display device, the liquid crystal display element 11
The light passing through A is shifted by d / 2 in parallel to the liquid crystal display element 11B side by the refraction plate 13A. Further, the light passing through the liquid crystal display element 11B is shifted by d / 2 in parallel to the liquid crystal display element 11A side by the refraction plate 13B. Therefore, the display images of the liquid crystal display elements 11A and 11B arranged so that the effective display areas are separated by the distance d are shifted in parallel to each other by 2 / d to display one connected image without a gap. can do.

Further, since the incident light is diffused in various directions by the diffuser plate 15, the viewing angle is widened, and one image without a gap can be viewed in a wide viewing angle range. Further, since the light from the backlights 12A and 12B is emitted substantially in parallel within the range of ± 10 ° by using the collimation films 14A and 14B, the light utilization efficiency is good and high-luminance display can be realized.

The parallel movement distance between the incident light and the outgoing light of the refraction plates 13A and 13B is determined by the material of the refraction plates 13A and 13B.
It can be arbitrarily set by adjusting the thickness, the inclination angle of the serrated groove portion (Frennel portion), and the like.

In the above description, the example in which the refraction plates 13A and 13B are formed by a single plate of a resin such as acryl is shown. However, as the refraction plates 13A and 13B, a fiber plate formed by accumulating acrylic fibers or the like is used. May be used. A plan view of the acrylic fiber plate is shown in FIG. 3 (A) and a sectional view thereof is shown in FIG. 3 (B).
Shown in As shown in FIG. 3A, the acrylic fiber plate is composed of a hexagonal bundle of optical fibers made of acrylic resin having a diameter of 20 to 500 μm. Refraction plate 13
The light incident on A and 13B passes through the fiber diameter R in the acrylic fiber plate shown in FIG. 3 (B) and is emitted substantially parallel to the incident light.

The refraction plates 13A and 13B are shown in FIG.
You may use the acrylic fiber board which processed the upper surface and lower surface in a saw shape like (A). As a result, the light can be efficiently incident on the refraction plates 13A and 13B, and the light can be vertically emitted.

Refraction plate 1 using this acrylic fiber plate
In 3A and 13B, the parallel movement distance between the incident light and the emitted light can be adjusted by the inclination of the fiber diameter R, the thickness of the acrylic fiber plate, and the like.

The refraction plates 13A and 13B are shown in FIG.
Even if a resin plate made of acrylic or the like, one side of which is processed into a sawtooth shape as shown in (B), is adhered to the upper surface and the lower surface of the fiber plate, the same result as in the case where only the acrylic fiber plate is used is used. The effect is obtained. Further, in this case, since the surface of the acrylic plate may be processed into a saw shape, the work process is easier than the case where the surface of the acrylic fiber plate is processed into a saw shape.

Further, as shown in FIG. 5, a microlens array in which a mask 32 is arranged between the microlenses 31 may be arranged on the collimation films 14A and 14B. With such a configuration, it is possible to emit light from the collimation films 14A and 14B with higher parallelism (within ± 1 °), and it is possible to realize a display with higher brightness.

As described above, according to this embodiment, one large image can be displayed by connecting the display images of a plurality of display elements. Further, in this display device, light is collimated and is incident on the liquid crystal display device, so that it is possible to display an image with high light utilization efficiency and high brightness. Further, since the structure of this display device is simpler than the conventional one, it is easy to manufacture.

In the above description, an example in which a transmissive liquid crystal display element is used as a display element is shown, but as the display element, a reflective liquid crystal display element, CRT, electroluminescent display panel, LED panel, plasma is used. Anything such as a display panel can be used. In addition, in order to improve the viewing angle, the diffusion plate 15
However, the diffuser plate 15 may be removed when the emitted light with the refractive indexes 13A and 13B is parallel light.

[0030]

According to the present invention, it is possible to construct a display device having a simple structure for displaying one image using a plurality of display elements and having a high light utilization efficiency.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a display device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view for explaining a collimation film.

FIG. 3A is a plan view of an acrylic fiber plate. (B) It is sectional drawing of an acrylic fiber board.

FIG. 4A is a view showing an acrylic fiber plate processed into a saw shape. FIG. 3B is a view showing an acrylic fiber plate in which a saw-shaped acrylic plate is bonded to the upper surface and the lower surface.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view when a microlens array is arranged on a collimation film.

[Explanation of symbols]

11A, 11B ... Liquid crystal display elements, 12A, 12B
..Backlight, 13A, 13B ... Refraction plate, 14
A, 14B ... Collimation film, 15 ...
Diffusion plate, 31 ... Microlens, 32 ... Mask

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of display elements arranged apart from each other, a plurality of display elements arranged on the light emission side of the plurality of display elements, and an upper surface and a lower surface having a saw-shaped cross section, and incident from each of the display elements. By refracting light twice in a predetermined direction and emitting light parallel to the incident light, the display images of the plurality of display elements are optically shifted and connected, and one image having substantially no gap is formed. A display device comprising: a refraction plate that forms a. 2. The refraction plate displays a display image of the second display element and a first refraction plate that shifts a display image of the first display element in parallel to a direction of the second display element by a predetermined distance. The display device according to claim 1, further comprising: a second refraction plate that shifts in parallel to a direction of the first display element by a predetermined distance. 3. A plurality of display elements which are arranged apart from each other, and which are arranged on the light emitting side of the plurality of display elements and optically shift and connect display images of the plurality of display elements. And a refraction plate that transmits the light emitted from the plurality of display elements by an optical fiber and emits light parallel to the incident light so as to form a single image without a gap. Display device. 4. The refraction plate is composed of a fiber plate formed by integrating optical fibers, and at least one of the upper surface and the lower surface of the fiber plate is formed in a saw-tooth cross section. The display device according to claim 3. 5. The refraction plate has a substantially flat surface, is formed by integrating optical fibers, and is disposed on at least one of an upper surface and a lower surface of the fiber plate, and has a sawtooth cross section. The display device according to claim 3, comprising a formed resin plate. 6. The display device according to claim 1, further comprising means for radiating parallel light to the plurality of display elements.