AbstractA new architecture for a thin (2‐cm depth) rear projection display is described. In order to achieve this small depth, a very high density of rear projectors is used. Three prototype displays using rear projectors on both 5‐ and 2‐cm pitch arrays are described. The displays can achieve an effective screen pixel pitch of as small as 0.5 mm, which makes this technology competitive in terms of resolution with fine pitch LED displays; however, orders of magnitude fewer LEDs are required: Each rear projector requires only one white LED and a color liquid crystal light modulator. In the three prototypes, the projector light modulators utilize 101‐cm (40 in.), 80‐cm (31.5 in.), and 60‐cm (24 in.) diagonal liquid crystal display glass. To minimize cost, no lenses are utilized for the rear projectors. An RGB LED array may augment the projector array, which provides a low resolution component of the image onto which the high resolution component is superimposed by the projector array. Edge gaps between active areas on adjacent LCD glass units are completely eliminated by the rear projection approach enabling low profile wall‐size seamless displays. Display contrast depends on rear projection screen design.
