US006101032A Ulllted States Patent [19] [11] Patent Number: 6,101,032 Wortman et al. [45] Date of Patent: *Aug. 8, 2000 [54] LIGHT FIXTURE HAVING A MULTILAYER FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS POLYMERIC FILM 1327286 3/1994 Canada ............................. .. 88/113.18 . . 062751 10/1982 Euro ean Pat. O?. .. G02B 1/08 [75] Inventors: Dav‘d L‘ Wmemn’ St‘ Paul’ Mmn'i 469732 7/1991 Eurogean Pat. on. ........ .. G02B 1/04 Mark E- Gardmer’ Santa R°Sa> Cahf; 514223 5/1992 European Pat. on. ........ .. G02B 5/08 Andrew J. Ouderkirk, Woodbury, Minn.; James M. J onza, Round Rock, (L15t Continued on next Page) T€X.; Michael F. Weber, ShOI‘CVICW, Minn. Schrenk et al., Nanolayer polymeric optical ?lms, Tappi [73] Assignee: 3M Innovative Properties Company, Journal, pp, 169474, Jun” 1992' SI- Paul, MiIlIl- Hodgkinson, I. et al., “Effective Principal Refractive Indices * N _ _ Th, _ d _ d and Column Angles for Periodic Stacks of Thin Birefringent [ 1 one“ 15, Patent 1,5“? on a Commie Pros‘ Films”, J. Opt. Soc. Am. A, vol. 10, No. 9, pp. 2065—2071 ecution application ?led under 37 CFR (1993)‘ 15361)’ and 1S subleet to the twenty year Im, J. et al., “Coextruded Microlayer Film and Sheet”, patent term provlslons of 35 USC‘ Journal of Plastic Film and Sheeting, vol. 4, pp. 104—115 154(a)(2)~ (Apr, 1988). _ Karpen, D., “Full—Spectrum Polarized Lighting Recreates [21] Appl' NO" 08/479’319 Daylight”, C0nsulting—Specifying Engineer, pp. 42—46, 48 [22] Filed: Jun. 7, 1995 (Apr. 1994). _ _ Lin, F., “A1,4: :Non—Imaging CCFT Coupler for LCD Related U-S- APPIICatIOIl Data Backlighting”, SID 94 Digest, vol. XXV, pp. 1415 (1994). _ _ _ _ _ Schrenk, W. et al., “Coextruded Iridescent Film”, Tappi [60] Dlvlslon of. apphcanon NO‘ Gig/41.8909’ Apr‘ 6’ 199.5’ aban' Paper Synthetics Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, pp. 141—145 doned, which is a continuation-in-part of application No. 08/223,548, Apr. 6, 1994, abandoned. (Sep- 27—29, 1976) (List continued on next page.) [51] Int. Cl.7 ..................................................... .. G02B 5/30 _ _ _ Primary Examiner—Ricky D. Shafer [52] US. Cl. ........................ .. 359/500, 359/498; 359/495, Attorney) Agent» 0’ F irm—J°hn A- Bums 359/485; 359/599; 362/19; 362/257; 362/260; [57] ABSTRACT 362/296; 428/212; 428/421; 428/480; 428/483; 428/522; 428/523; 428/910 A polarized light source includes a diffuse light source and a re?ective polarizing element placed proximate thereto. [58] Field of Search ................................... .. 359/485, 487, The re?ective polarizing element transmits light of a desired 359/490, 491, 492, 494, 495, 498, 500, polarization and re?ects light of another polarization back 580, 584, 589, 359, 883, 884; 362/19, 257, into the diffuse source Where it is randomized. Some of the 260, 296 initially rejected light is thus converted into the desired _ polarization and is transmitted through the re?ective polar [56] References Clted izing element. This process continues, and the repeated U_S_ PATENT DOCUMENTS re?ections and subsequent randomization of light of the undesired polarization increases the amount of light of the Re. 34,605 5/1994 Schrenk et al. ....................... .. 359/359 desired polarization that is emitted by the polarized light 2,776,598 1/1957 Dreyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 88/105 Source‘ 3,124,639 3/1964 Kahn ......................................... .. 88/65 (List continued on next page.) 45 Claims, 23 Drawing Sheets [100 #102 no 2 my 4104 n1 n12 4 V l 02y n2zT —‘—> no X y
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US006101032A
Ulllted States Patent [19] [11] Patent Number: 6,101,032 Wortman et al. [45] Date of Patent: *Aug. 8, 2000
[54] LIGHT FIXTURE HAVING A MULTILAYER FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS
POLYMERIC FILM 1327286 3/1994 Canada ............................. .. 88/113.18
Mark E- Gardmer’ Santa R°Sa> Cahf; 514223 5/1992 European Pat. on. ........ .. G02B 5/08 Andrew J. Ouderkirk, Woodbury, Minn.; James M. J onza, Round Rock, (L15t Continued on next Page) T€X.; Michael F. Weber, ShOI‘CVICW, Minn.
SI- Paul, MiIlIl- Hodgkinson, I. et al., “Effective Principal Refractive Indices * N _ _ Th, _ d _ d and Column Angles for Periodic Stacks of Thin Birefringent
[ 1 one“ 15, Patent 1,5“? on a Commie Pros‘ Films”, J. Opt. Soc. Am. A, vol. 10, No. 9, pp. 2065—2071 ecution application ?led under 37 CFR (1993)‘ 15361)’ and 1S subleet to the twenty year Im, J. et al., “Coextruded Microlayer Film and Sheet”, patent term provlslons of 35 USC‘ Journal of Plastic Film and Sheeting, vol. 4, pp. 104—115 154(a)(2)~ (Apr, 1988).
428/522; 428/523; 428/910 A polarized light source includes a diffuse light source and a re?ective polarizing element placed proximate thereto.
[58] Field of Search ................................... .. 359/485, 487, The re?ective polarizing element transmits light of a desired 359/490, 491, 492, 494, 495, 498, 500, polarization and re?ects light of another polarization back
580, 584, 589, 359, 883, 884; 362/19, 257, into the diffuse source Where it is randomized. Some of the 260, 296 initially rejected light is thus converted into the desired
_ polarization and is transmitted through the re?ective polar [56] References Clted izing element. This process continues, and the repeated
U_S_ PATENT DOCUMENTS re?ections and subsequent randomization of light of the undesired polarization increases the amount of light of the
Re. 34,605 5/1994 Schrenk et al. ....................... .. 359/359 desired polarization that is emitted by the polarized light 2,776,598 1/1957 Dreyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 88/105 Source‘
5,188,760 2/1993 Hi16111616161. . 252/299_01 Coextrusion”, Polymer Engineering and Science, vol. 18 5,200,843 4/1993 Karasawa et a1. ...................... .. 359/40 (8), pp. 620—623 (Jun. 1978).
6,101,032 Page 3
Schrenk, W. et al., “CoeXtruded Elastomeric Optical Inter ference Film”, SPE Annual Technical Conference, Atlanta, GA pp. 1703—1707 (1988). Schrenk, W. et al., “CoeXtruded Infrared Re?ecting Films”, 7th Annual Meeting Polymer Processing Society, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, pp. 222—223 (Apr. 1991). Schrenk, W., “New Developments in CoeXtrusion”, Inter national Conference on Advances In Polymer Processing, NeW Orleans, Louisiana, (Apr., 1991). Wu et al., “High Transparent Sheet PolariZer Made With Birefringent Materials”, Jpn. J. ofApp. Phys., vol. 34, pp. L 997—9, part 2, No. 8A (Aug. 1995). M. Weber, “Retrore?ective Sheet PolariZer”, SID conf. proceedings, Seattle, WA, May 1993, SID 93 Digest, pp. 669—672.
T. Alfrey, Jr. et al., “Physical Optics of Iridescent Multilayer Plastic Films”, Polymer Engineering and Science, vol. 9, No. 6, Nov. 1969.
K. Baba et al., “Optical anisotropy of stretched gold island ?lms: experimental results”, Optics Letters, vol. 17, No. 8, Apr. 15, 1992.
J. Radford et al., “Re?ectivity of Iridescent CoeXtruded Multilayered Plastic Films”, presented at the American Chemical Society Symposium on “CoeXtruded Plastic Films, Fibers, Composites”, Apr. 9—14, 1972.
M. Weber, “Retrore?ecting Sheet PoliZer”, SID conf. pro ceeding, Boston, MA, May 1992, SID 92 Digest, pp. 427—429.
U.S. Patent Aug. 8,2000 Sheet 1 0f 23 6,101,032
/ 100
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130/120 — 124
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123
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U.S. Patent Aug. 8,2000 Sheet 2 0f 23 6,101,032
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U.S. Patent Aug. 8,2000 Sheet 3 0f 23 6,101,032
112
71942 131
102
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136
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U.S. Patent Aug. 8,2000
100
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Sheet 4 0f 23 6,101,032
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108
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U.S. Patent Aug. 8,2000 Sheet 6 0f 23 6,101,032
100 ~1
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\ ~
400 -Jl-___--l' 500
| I
800
| |
700
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600
WAVELENGTH (nm)
0
71971;
U.S. Patent Aug. 8,2000 Sheet 7 0f 23 6,101,032
0.9 ——
0.8 -
0.7 -
0.5 ~
% TRANSMISSION 0.3 ~
0.2 ~
0.1 ——
O l ‘A l I
400 500 600
WAVELENGTH (nm)
SFIgJC
U.S. Patent Aug. 8,2000 Sheet 8 0f 23 6,101,032
A Y
159a
//\\ 745% Z
U.S. Patent Aug. 8,2000 Sheet 9 0f 23 6,101,032
190 100 O \GF’B 1 02
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719102; 1 94
196
197
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1 O4
103
U.S. Patent Aug. 8,2000 Sheet 10 0f 23 6,101,032
m‘.
800 700 500 600
WAVELENGTH (nm)
2.
2
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71913
700 650 600 550 500
8 0 10M AM vxvvvj 6. A O O 20_mm_ iwzqE. 2 O
450 O
WAVELENGTH (nm)
U.S. Patent Aug. 8,2000 Sheet 11 0f 23 6,101,032
3.90“ “E5 EQZHEZE, 8N. 0mm 08 00m 00m 00v. OQQO
N.O .WO Q0 Q0 TRANSMISSION
U.S. Patent Aug. 8,2000 Sheet 12 0f 23 6,101,032
08 8b 009
3.9% OOD
“E5 TEb2mJm><3 8:
00m OON
OOm
TRANSMISSION (%)
U.S. Patent Aug. 8,2000 Sheet 13 0f 23 6,101,032
\
\ I500
HOO
W Wk \
7(1) 900
WAVELENGTH ( nm)
f 0 z r 6i i
8 8 8 ' 9 8
TRANSMISSION ("/o)
500
U.S. Patent Aug. 8,2000 Sheet 14 0f 23 6,101,032
100
u 58
’ M MW
80
60 \n /
49 A A
f \/\< 60 20 k/
04% 1 5w 1 | I l
U.S. Patent Aug. 8,2000 Sheet 15 0f 23 6,101,032
I00
62
80
(7) O I
(%) NOISSHNSNVELL 8 l .
64
l I
400 500 600 700 WAVELENGTH (nm)
719.18
U.S. Patent Aug. 8,2000 Sheet 16 0f 23 6,101,032
d/ e.\ I]! j ‘Jb/ I 7 j
_ _ _ _ _
w M w w. 0. 0 O. O. Q 0 O
>E>Fowimm 010 20 3O 4O 5O 6O 7O 8O 9O
ANGLE OF INCIDENCE IN 1.60 MEDIUM
71919
l l
10 2O 3O 4O 5O 6O 7O 8O 9O 0
0.05 -
“y 2 0 O o. 0. Ezhmzhmm O
ANGLE OF INCIDENCE IN 1.60 MEDIUM
71920
U.S. Patent Aug. 8,2000 Sheet 17 0f 23 6,101,032
I l
10 2O 3O 4O 5O 6O 7O 8O 90 I
O
0.012
0.01
0.002
O
ANGLE OF INCIDENCE IN 1.00 MEDIUM
INDEX
IN-PLANE INDEX 1
E Exil Lm GA NH AT RI EW 8% mm» E. \RE L 5m m
T
mm Am Du IIIIIIAIIIgN mm mm STE RR ASG B EN 0 CRA N NE