Feasibility Study of the Light-outcoupling Characteristics of a Diffraction-grating-imprinted Light-guide Plate for an LCD Backlight Unit

Abstract

The possibility of replacing the condensing-prism film used in conventional backlight units with a light-guide plate engraved with a submicrometer-periodic diffraction grating was investigated. The optimal period for the diffraction grating was determined through simulation and experiment, and the transmission-mode efficiency of the diffraction grating was calculated in terms of the polar angle and azimuthal angle of the incident light. In addition, the effects of the two methods of optimizing the polar angle and the directional angle were compared by simulation, by suggesting the shape and configuration of the light-guide plate, so that more light could be extracted by diffraction. By using a ray-tracing program, the luminance angular distribution of the light-guide plate engraved with the diffraction grating was calculated and compared to the luminance angular distribution for each actual prototype.