Three beam-combining schemes in a color projection display
Several beam-combining schemes for on-axis and off-axis optical system layout are presented. The on-axis approaches include two crossed plates with dichroic coatings placed at 90 deg, with respect to each other, and a pentaprism arrangement. The off-axis layout of the cathode ray tubes requires that the images be combined at the display screen. These image-combining approaches are compared for the standard television rates of 525 lines and the high-resolution television at 1200/2000 lines under development in Japan. It is concluded that, for the high-performance, high-color fidelity, and high-resolution projection systems, which are expected to fit into a small volume of space such as a Space Station display or a cockpit panoramic display, a folded configuration with either crossed plates or pentaprism plates will result in an optimum color display.