Near IR Free Remotely Illuminated Backlighting for Night Vision Imaging Systems

We propose the development of a remotely powered back lighting for night vision imaging systems. The technology proposed also enables future incorporation of sequential RGB backlighting, that will improve AM-LCD performance by reducing the number of driving circuits by a factor of three, eliminate the spatially distributed RGB filters, triple the resolution for the same pixel size and triple the amount of light available from a given light source. The technology involves concentrating light from a relatively small point source with an optically efficient concentrator, transmitting the light to a unique extraction plate and extracting the light homogeneously and unidirectionally. In this approach the light will be conditioned (near IR exclusion) at the source thus drastically reducing the size of the filters required. The light can be conditioned for day and night viewing by using two interchangeable light conditioning filters between the light source and the collection optics. The overall optical losses are expected to be under 38%. The ability to provide dual spectral distribution in a single backlighting or sequential RGB cannot be duplicated in current fluorescent based backlights.