Liquid Crystal on Silicon consists of a liquid crystal matrix laid over a
reflective surface. The liquid crystal matrix controls the amount of light that
reaches the reflective layer. A high-intensity light illuminates the panel, and
reflected light passes through a projection lens to the projection screen.
LCoS projectors use beam splitters to split the light from the lamp into
three beams. The beams pass through red, green, or blue filters before falling
on separate LCoS panels (the filters may be placed anywhere in the light path,
including on top of the LCoS panel). The reflected beams are recombined into a
single beam before passing through the projection lens.
An
example of the light path of an LCoS projector.
Apparently, no single-panel LCoS projectors (like DLP projectors that use a
spinning color filter wheel) are being manufactured.
An
LCoS projector
LCoS panels are used for various displays, such as camera viewfinders,
head-mounted displays, hand-held projectors, and larger projectors.
