JP2008140670A - Light emitting device and projector - Google Patents

Abstract

A light-emitting device and a projector capable of easily reducing labor and cost for maintenance are provided.
A projector includes a lamp holder that holds a lamp that contains a substance that emits light upon receiving irradiation of a microwave, and an outside of the lamp while the lamp is held by the lamp holder. In addition, the light source device 11 is provided with an electric field induction rod 30 in which a conductive mandrel is covered with a dielectric, and a microwave generation unit 21 that generates a microwave 25. Yes.
[Selection] Figure 3

Description

  The present invention relates to a light emitting device and a projector.

  Conventionally, a discharge starting auxiliary body made of a metal wire is provided in a discharge lamp that emits light in a microwave electromagnetic field, and the electromagnetic field strength in the discharge lamp is increased by concentration of the electromagnetic field generated at the end of the metal wire. A light source device is known (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

JP-A-57-55057 (2nd page, FIG. 2)

In the light source device described in Patent Document 1, the discharge start auxiliary body is embedded in a protrusion formed integrally with the discharge lamp. Therefore, in the light source device described in Patent Document 1, for example, when maintenance such as replacement of a discharge lamp or a discharge start auxiliary body is required, the discharge lamp and the discharge start auxiliary body are separated, Maintenance alone cannot be performed. In other words, in this light source device, even if only one of the discharge lamp and the discharge start auxiliary body is in need of maintenance, both the discharge lamp and the discharge start auxiliary body must be maintained. I must. Therefore, in this light source device, there is an unsolved problem that it is difficult to reduce the labor and cost for maintenance.
The present invention has been made paying attention to this unsolved problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a light-emitting device and a projector that can easily reduce maintenance labor and cost.

  The light-emitting device of the present invention includes a lamp holding unit that holds a lamp enclosing a substance that emits light upon receiving microwave irradiation, and the lamp is held by the lamp holding unit on the outside of the lamp. The lamp includes a conductor positioned with a gap and a microwave generator for generating the microwave.

In this light emitting device, the electric field component of the microwave from the microwave generator is collected by the conductor, so that the collected electric field component can be easily concentrated on the lamp. Therefore, the brightness of the lamp can be easily improved.
Further, in this light emitting device, since the conductor is positioned with a gap from the lamp, that is, the conductor and the lamp are independent, maintenance is performed on each of the conductor and the lamp independently. It becomes possible. Therefore, in this light emitting device, it is possible to easily reduce the labor and cost for maintenance.

  In the above light-emitting device, the conductor may be formed in a rod shape and may be provided so as to extend from the outside of the lamp toward the lamp.

  According to this configuration, since one end of the rod-shaped conductor is directed to the lamp, the electric field component of the microwave can be more easily concentrated on the lamp.

  In the above light emitting device, a plurality of the conductors may be provided.

  According to this configuration, since a plurality of conductors are provided, it is possible to easily concentrate the electric field component of the microwave on the lamp.

  In the light emitting device, at least two of the plurality of conductors may be provided at positions facing each other with the lamp interposed therebetween.

  According to this configuration, since the lamp is sandwiched between at least two conductors, the electric field component of the microwave can be more easily concentrated on the lamp.

  In the above light emitting device, a coil may be inserted outside the conductor via a dielectric.

  According to this configuration, a configuration in which a coil is wound around the outside of the conductor, that is, a configuration in which the conductor penetrates the coil, can be used, so that the electric field component can be more easily concentrated between the coil and the conductor passing through the coil. can do.

  The projector of the present invention includes the light emitting device, a light modulation unit that modulates the light from the light emitting device according to image data to form an optical image, and the optical image formed by the light modulation unit. And a projection unit for projecting.

  Since this projector includes a light emitting device that easily improves the luminance of the lamp, it is possible to easily improve the brightness of the optical image projected through the projection unit. Further, since the light emitting device has a configuration that can easily reduce the labor and cost for maintenance, the labor and cost for maintenance can be easily reduced in the projector.

  As shown in FIG. 1 which is a block diagram, the projector 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention includes an optical system 3, a control circuit 5, and a power supply unit 7. The projector 1 projects an image corresponding to an image signal input from the outside onto a screen S or the like via an optical system 3. In the projector 1, AC power from the external power supply 9 is converted into DC power by the power supply unit 7, and DC power is supplied from the power supply unit 7 to the optical system 3, the control circuit 5, and the like.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the optical system 3 includes a light source device 11, an illumination optical system 13, a light modulation unit 15, a color synthesis optical system 17, and a projection unit 19. The light source device 11 includes a microwave generator 21 and a lamp 23. Here, the microwave generally refers to an electromagnetic wave having a frequency of 3 GHz to 30 GHz, but in this specification, refers to an electromagnetic wave in a band of 300 MHz to 30 GHz corresponding to the UHF band to the SHF band.

  The microwave generator 21 radiates microwaves. The lamp 23 emits light upon receiving microwave irradiation from the microwave generation unit 21. The illumination optical system 13 makes the illuminance of the light beam emitted from the light source device 11 uniform, and converts the uniform light beam into red (R), green (G), and blue (B) via a dichroic mirror or a reflection mirror. Separate into light of each color.

  The light modulation unit 15 has a configuration in which a liquid crystal panel is disposed between a pair of polarizing plates provided corresponding to light of each color of R, G, and B, and images light beams of each color separated by the illumination optical system 13 as images. An optical image is formed by modulation according to data. The color synthesizing optical system 17 synthesizes the optical images of the respective colors modulated by the light modulation unit 15 via a cross dichroic prism or the like to form a color image. The projection unit 19 projects a color image formed by combining the optical images of the respective colors with the color combining optical system 17 onto the screen S via a lens or the like.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the light source device 11 includes two electric field induction bars 30, a reflector 31, a reflector 32, and a case 33 in addition to the above-described microwave generator 21 and lamp 23. . In FIG. 3, the reflector 31, the reflector 32, and the case 33 are illustrated in schematic cross-sectional views for easy understanding of the configuration.

Here, details of each component of the light source device 11 will be described.
As shown in FIG. 4, the lamp 23 includes a light emitting unit 35 that emits light upon receiving microwave irradiation, a support arm 39, and a held unit 40.

The light emitting unit 35 has a configuration in which a substance that emits light by being irradiated with microwaves is enclosed in an enclosure 37 formed of, for example, quartz glass. In FIG. 4, the light emitting unit 35 is illustrated in a cross-sectional view for easy understanding of the configuration of the light emitting unit 35.
As the substance sealed in the sealing portion 37, for example, a rare gas such as neon, argon, krypton, or xenon, mercury, a metal halide compound, or the like may be employed.

  The support arm 39 is formed integrally with the enclosing portion 37, for example, of quartz glass, and extends from the enclosing portion 37 toward the outside of the enclosing portion 37. The held portion 40 is formed at the end of the support arm 39 along the direction in which the support arm 39 extends.

  As shown in FIG. 5 which is a cross-sectional view, the electric field induction rod 30 has a configuration in which the periphery of the mandrel 41 is covered with a dielectric 42 such as quartz glass. The dielectric 42 is not limited to quartz glass but may be ceramics. The mandrel 41 is formed in a rod shape from a material having conductivity and a low thermal expansion coefficient and high heat resistance. As the material of the mandrel 41, tungsten, stainless steel, or the like can be adopted.

  The dielectric 42 surrounds the mandrel 41 and is formed in a rod shape along the direction in which the mandrel 41 extends. At one end of the dielectric 42, a held portion 43 extending along the direction in which the dielectric 42 extends is formed. Here, the mandrel 41 is formed so that one end side of the dielectric 42 opposite to the held portion 43 side becomes narrower toward the end portion. In the following, one end side of the mandrel 41 formed so as to become thinner toward the end portion will be expressed as a tip end side.

  Each electric field induction rod 30 having the above-described configuration is held by the reflector 31 in a state where each tip side of each mandrel 41 is directed to the light emitting portion 35 of the lamp 23. In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, the two electric field induction rods 30 are opposed to each other with the light emitting part 35 of the lamp 23 interposed therebetween, and a gap is maintained between the two light emitting parts 35. It is held by the reflector 31.

  The reflector 31 is made of, for example, quartz glass, and as shown in FIG. 6, a light beam reflecting surface 45 having a parabolic curved surface is formed on the inner surface side. The light beam reflecting surface 45 is formed of a dielectric multilayer film that transmits microwaves and reflects light beams. At the top of the parabolic surface of the light beam reflecting surface 45, a coupling portion 47, which is a portion coupled to the microwave generating unit 21, is formed on the opposite side of the light beam reflecting surface 45, that is, outside the reflector 31. .

  A held portion 40 of the lamp 23 shown in FIG. 4 is fitted on the light flux reflecting surface 45 side of the coupling portion 47 to form a holding portion 49 that holds the lamp 23. Further, at each position facing the light-emitting portion 35 of the light flux reflecting surface 45, the held portion 43 of the electric field induction rod 30 shown in FIG. 5 is fitted, and the holding portion 50 holding each electric field induction rod 30 is provided. Is formed.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the reflector 31 having the above-described configuration has the coupling portion 47 fixed to the microwave generation portion 21 while holding the lamp 23 and each electric field induction rod 30. The paraboloid shape of the light beam reflecting surface 45 is formed so as to be focused on the light emitting unit 35 located inside the reflector 31. As a result, the light beam 51a from the light emitting unit 35 that has been irradiated with the microwave 25 is reflected by the light beam reflecting surface 45 to become a light beam 51b substantially parallel to the optical axis L.

  The reflector 32 is made of a metal material that is a conductive material, and has a microwave reflecting surface 53 having a spherical curved surface, as shown in FIG. The reflector 32 is formed with a plurality of holes 54 having a diameter equal to or smaller than a quarter wavelength of the microwave 25 (the illustration is simplified). Further, the spherical shape of the microwave reflecting surface 53 is configured so that the light emitting portion 35 of the lamp 23 is in focus. The microwave reflecting surface 53 reflects the microwave 25. Further, the plurality of holes 54 allow the light beam 51 b reflected by the light beam reflecting surface 45 of the reflector 31 to pass therethrough.

  The case 33 is formed in a mesh shape with a conductive material, and covers the microwave generation unit 21, the reflector 31, and the lamp 23 as shown in FIG. The case 33 shields the microwave 25. In the case 33, a substantially circular hole 55 is formed on the surface facing the reflector 32, and an edge of the hole 55 has an inner surface having a curved surface similar to the outer surface of the open end of the reflector 32. It is formed to become.

  In the case 33, the open end of the reflector 32 is engaged with the hole 55, and the reflector 32 is fixed. Therefore, in the light source device 11, the reflector 32 protrudes from the case 33. The reflector 32 covers the microwave generator 21, the reflector 31, and the lamp 23 together with the case 33 to shield the microwave 25.

  As illustrated in FIG. 7, the microwave generation unit 21 includes a solid-state high-frequency oscillation unit 61 and a waveguide unit 63. The solid high-frequency oscillator 61 includes a diamond SAW (Surface Acoustic Wave) oscillator 65, a power supply 67, and an amplifier 69. The waveguide unit 63 includes an antenna 71 and an isolator 73 as a safety device. The diamond SAW oscillator 65 includes a phase shift circuit 75, a diamond SAW resonator 77, an amplifier 79, a power distributor 81, and a buffer circuit 83.

  The power supply 67 supplies power to the diamond SAW oscillator 65 and the amplifier 69 based on the drive signal. The diamond SAW oscillator 65 is connected to the front stage of the amplifier 69 and generates a 2.45 GHz band high-frequency signal and outputs the generated high-frequency signal to the amplifier 69. The amplifier 69 amplifies the input high frequency signal and then outputs it to the waveguide unit 63. At this time, the high frequency signal is amplified by the amplifier 69 to an output level that can excite the substance enclosed in the enclosure part 37 of the lamp 23 and cause the light emitting part 35 to emit light.

  The high frequency signal input to the waveguide unit 63 is radiated as the microwave 25 through the antenna 71. In the present embodiment, the antenna 71 is configured as a patch antenna, and is a planar antenna that radiates the microwave 25 having unidirectionality. The antenna 71 radiates the microwave 25 as a substantially plane wave. The isolator 73 is provided between the solid high-frequency oscillation unit 61 and the antenna 71, and prevents reflected waves from the reflector 32, the lamp 23, the case 33 and the like from returning to the solid high-frequency oscillation unit 61, and an amplifier 69. This prevents malfunctions.

  The diamond SAW oscillator 65 has a configuration in which a buffer circuit 83 is connected to a loop circuit 85 formed by a phase shift circuit 75, a diamond SAW resonator 77, an amplifier 79, and a power distributor 81. The buffer circuit 83 is connected to one output side of the power distributor 81. The phase shift circuit 75 receives a control voltage from the power supply 67 and changes the phase of the loop circuit 85. These blocks are all matched and connected to a constant characteristic impedance, specifically 50Ω. The diamond SAW resonator 77 is connected to the input side of the amplifier 79 so that an input voltage at which the amplifier 79 is saturated is supplied.

  This makes it possible to directly oscillate a high-frequency signal in the GHz band using the diamond SAW resonator 77. Further, the output power of the amplifier 79 can be output from the power distributor 81 to the outside via the buffer circuit 83 while maintaining matching.

  Also, with this circuit configuration, it is possible to continue the continuous oscillation state while minimizing the power applied to the diamond SAW resonator 77. Further, the phase shift circuit 75 can perform frequency modulation on the high-frequency signal, and the frequency of the microwave 25 can be varied or adjusted with respect to the lamp 23. The oscillator applied to the solid-state high-frequency oscillator 61 is not limited to the diamond SAW oscillator 65 using the diamond SAW resonator 77, and may be an oscillator using a dielectric resonator or an LC resonator. .

  As shown in FIG. 8, the control circuit 5 includes a control unit 91, a light source driving unit 93, an image processing unit 95, a signal conversion unit 97, and a liquid crystal panel driving unit 99. The control unit 91 is configured by a microcomputer, for example, and includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 103 and a storage unit 105.

  The CPU 103 performs overall control of the operation of the projector 1 according to a control program stored in the storage unit 105. The storage unit 105 includes a ROM (Read Only Memory) such as a flash memory, a RAM (Random Access Memory), and the like. The ROM stores a control program executed by the CPU 103. The RAM temporarily expands a control program executed by the CPU 103 and temporarily stores various setting values.

The light source driver 93 turns on and off the lamp 23 by controlling the output of the drive signal to the microwave generator 21 based on an instruction from the controller 91.
The image processing unit 95 is connected to the signal conversion unit 97 and the liquid crystal panel driving unit 99, and based on instructions from the control unit 91, various processes on the image signal input to the signal conversion unit 97 and a light modulation unit 15 controls the image formation.

  The signal conversion unit 97 converts an image signal supplied from the outside into image data in a format that can be processed by the image processing unit 95, and then outputs the image data to the image processing unit 95. The image processing unit 95 performs various processes on the image data input from the signal conversion unit 97 and outputs the image data to the liquid crystal panel driving unit 99. Examples of processing performed by the image processing unit 95 on the image data include various image quality adjustments and processing for combining OSD (on-screen display) images such as menus and messages. Various image quality adjustments include resolution conversion, brightness adjustment, contrast adjustment, sharpness adjustment, and the like.

  The liquid crystal panel drive unit 99 controls the drive of each liquid crystal panel (not shown) constituting the light modulation unit 15 in accordance with the input image data. The light modulation unit 15 controls the driving of each liquid crystal panel by the liquid crystal panel driving unit 99, thereby modulating the light of each color of R, G, and B according to image data to form an optical image. The optical image formed by the light modulation unit 15 is combined with the color image by the color combining optical system 17 and then projected onto the screen S via the projection unit 19.

  In the present embodiment, the light source device 11 corresponds to the light emitting device, the microwave generation unit 21 corresponds to the microwave generation device, the mandrel 41 corresponds to the conductor, and the holding unit 49 corresponds to the lamp holding unit. ing.

  In the projector 1 of this embodiment, the light source device 11 in which the mandrel 41 is provided outside the light emitting unit 35 of the lamp 23 can be used as a light source. In the light source device 11, the electric field component of the microwave 25 irradiated from the microwave generation unit 21 can be easily concentrated on the light emitting unit 35 by the mandrel 41 having conductivity. Thereby, the brightness of the lamp 23 is improved, and the brightness of the optical image projected through the projection unit 19 can be easily improved.

  The lamp 23 and the electric field induction rod 30 are independent of each other, and are held by the reflector 31 with a gap maintained between the lamp 23 and the electric field induction rod 30. For this reason, when the necessity for replacement | exchange etc. arises in any one of the lamp | ramp 23 and the electric field induction rod 30, only one can be replaced | exchanged independently. That is, it is possible to perform maintenance on either the lamp 23 or the electric field induction rod 30 independently, and it is possible to reduce labor and cost for maintenance.

  In the present embodiment, the light source device 11 includes two electric field induction bars 30. These two electric field induction rods 30 are held by the reflector 31 so that the distal end side of the mandrel 41 faces each other with the light emitting part 35 of the lamp 23 interposed therebetween. According to this configuration, since the two mandrels 41 sandwich the light emitting unit 35 with one end of each mandrel 41 of the two electric field induction rods 30 facing the light emitting unit 35, the electric field component of the microwave 25 Can be efficiently concentrated on the light emitting unit 35.

  In the present embodiment, the configuration in which the light source device 11 includes two electric field induction rods 30 has been described as an example. However, the number of electric field induction rods 30 is not limited to two, and any one or more arbitrary numbers may be used. Can be adopted.

  In the present embodiment, the electric field induction rod 30 having a configuration in which the mandrel 41 is wrapped with the dielectric 42 is employed, but the configuration of the electric field induction rod 30 is not limited to this. As the electric field induction rod 30, as shown in FIG. 9, a configuration in which a coil 111 is fitted outside the dielectric 42 can be adopted. In this configuration, the electric field induction rod 30 has a configuration in which the coil 111 is wound around the outer side of the dielectric 42 as shown in FIG. 10 which is a cross-sectional view, so that the mandrel 41 penetrates the inside of the coil 111. Is provided. As the coil 111, for example, a wire material having high conductivity and heat resistance such as copper and aluminum can be adopted.

  In the electric field induction rod 30 shown in FIG. 10, the electric field component of the microwave 25 tends to concentrate inside the coil 111 so as to penetrate the coil 111. In addition, the electric field component of the microwave 25 tends to concentrate on the mandrel 41 that penetrates the coil 111. Therefore, in the electric field induction rod 30 shown in FIG. 10, the electric field component of the microwave 25 can be more easily concentrated on the light emitting portion 35, and the luminance of the lamp 23 can be further improved. If the light source device 11 including the electric field induction rod 30 shown in FIG. 10 is applied to the projector 1, the brightness of the optical image projected through the projection unit 19 can be further improved.

  In this embodiment, the dielectric 42 is made of a material such as quartz glass. However, the material of the dielectric 42 is not limited to this, and may be a material having high insulation and magnetism. According to this configuration, the electric field component of the microwave 25 can be more easily concentrated on the light emitting unit 35. An example of a material having high insulation and magnetism is manganese zinc (MnZn) -based ferrite.

1 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of a projector according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a block diagram showing the main configuration of an optical system of a projector in an embodiment of the present invention. The figure explaining the structure of the light source device of the projector in embodiment of this invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a projector lamp in an embodiment of the present invention. Sectional drawing explaining the structure of the electric field induction rod of the projector in embodiment of this invention. Sectional drawing explaining the reflector of the projector in embodiment of this invention. 1 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of a microwave generation unit of a projector in an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of a projector control circuit according to an embodiment of the present invention. The figure explaining the other structural example of the light source device of the projector in embodiment of this invention. Sectional drawing explaining the other structural example of the electric field induction rod of the projector in embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Projector, 11 ... Light source device, 15 ... Light modulation part, 19 ... Projection part, 21 ... Microwave generation part, 23 ... Lamp, 25 ... Microwave, 30 ... Electric field induction rod, 41 ... Mandrel, 42 ... Dielectric 49 ... holding part, 50 ... holding part, 111 ... coil.

Claims (6)

  A lamp holding unit that holds a lamp enclosing a substance that emits light upon receiving microwave irradiation, and a gap between the lamp and the lamp outside the lamp while the lamp is held by the lamp holding unit. And a microwave generator for generating the microwave.   The light emitting device according to claim 1, wherein the conductor is formed in a rod shape and extends from the outside of the lamp toward the lamp.   The light emitting device according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the conductors are provided.   The light emitting device according to claim 3, wherein at least two of the plurality of conductors are provided at positions facing each other across the lamp.   The light emitting device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein a coil is fitted outside the conductor through a dielectric.   The light emitting device according to claim 1, a light modulating unit that modulates the light from the light emitting device according to image data to form an optical image, and the light modulating unit. And a projection unit for projecting the optical image.

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