Color component aperture stops in projection display system

1. An electronic projection system, comprising:

an illumination system generating polychromatic light;

a color separation system positioned to receive the polychromatic light from the illumination system and to separate the polychromatic light into primary color components of light that are directed along separate primary color component light paths;

two or more fixed color modifying aperture stops positioned along two or more of the separate primary color component light paths, at least one of the color modifying aperture stops being sized differently from another, to selectively block at least one of the primary color components of light relative to another primary color component of light to provide balance between the light components; and

one or more electronic light valves that imparts or impart image information into each of the primary color components of light.

2. The system of claim 1 in which the two or more color modifying aperture stops are positioned along two or more of the separate primary color component light paths, and at least one of the color modifying aperture stops is shaped differently from another.

3. The system of claim 1 further including first and second sets of relay optics that establish three telecentric regions in the system.

4. An electronic projection system, comprising:

an illumination system generating polychromatic light;

a color separation system positioned to receive the polychromatic light from the illumination system and to separate the polychromatic light into primary color components of light that are directed along separate primary color component light paths;

at least one color modifying aperture stop to selectively block at least one of the primary color components of light relative to another primary color component of light to provide balance between the light components, the at least one aperture stop including an apodizing aperture stop with an annular color filter corresponding to the at least one primary color component of light; and

one or more electronic light valves that imparts or impart image information into each of the primary color components of light.

5. The system of claim 4 in which the apodizing aperture stop includes a circular annular color filter.

6. The system of claim 4 in which the at least one apodizing aperture stop includes a cruciform annular color filter.

7. In an electronic projection system having an illumination system generating light with plural primary color components, the improvement comprising:

a color modifying aperture stop that reduces the intensity of at least one of the primary color components relative to the others, the color modifying aperture stop being an apodizing aperture stop and including an aperture that is elongated in one direction.

8. The system of claim 7 in which the color modifying aperture stop includes an elliptical aperture.

9. The system of claim 7 in which the color modifying aperture stop includes a cropped circular aperture.

10. The system of claim 7 in which the color modifying aperture stop includes a cruciform aperture.

11. The system of claim 7 in which the apodizing aperture stop includes an annular color filter that preferentially reduces the intensity of at least one primary color component.

12. The system of claim 7 in which the apodizing aperture stop includes an aperture that is elongated in one direction.

13. The system of claim 7 in which all the primary color components are directed through the apodizing aperture stop.

14. The system of claim 7 in which primary color components are directed along separate optical paths and the color modifying aperture stop includes an annular color filter.

15. A contrast improvement method for a reflective liquid crystal-on-silicon projection system that includes an illumination system generating polychromatic light, comprising:

color separating the polychromatic light from the illumination system into primary color components of light that are directed along separate primary color component light paths;

aperture stopping at least one of the primary color components of light relative to another, including aperture stopping by different amounts two or more color components of light with a common apodizing aperture stop, to balance relative intensities of the primary color components of light; and

directing the primary color components of light to one or more light valves to impart image information into each of the primary color components of light.

16. A reflective liquid crystal-on-silicon projection system, comprising:

an illumination system generating polychromatic light;

a color separation system positioned to receive the polychromatic light from the illumination system and to separate the polychromatic light into primary color components of light that are directed along separate primary color component light paths;

first and second sets of relay optics that establish three telecentric regions in the system;

at least one aperture stop positioned along at least one of the primary color component light paths to balance relative intensities of the primary color components of light;

a reflective liquid crystal-on-silicon light valve positioned with a polarizing beam splitter for each of the primary color component light paths to separately impart image information into each of the primary color components of light; and

a color combiner that receives and combines the primary color components of light with imparted image information to provide light representing a polychromatic display image.

17. The system of claim 16 in which the color separation system and the color combiner each include a cross-dichroic arrangement.

18. The system of claim 17 in which the cross-dichroic arrangements of the color separation and the color combiner are the same.

19. The system of claim 16 further comprising a light pipe integrator that is tapered in the one axis, the light pipe integrator being positioned between the illumination system and the color separation system.

20. An electronic projection system, comprising:

an illumination system generating polychromatic light;

a color separation system positioned to receive the polychromatic light from the illumination system and to separate the polychromatic light into primary color components of light that are directed along separate primary color component light paths;

only one color modifying aperture stop to selectively block at least one of the primary color components of light relative to another primary color component of light to provide balance between the light components; and

one or more electronic light valves that imparts or impart image information into each of the primary color components of light.

21. The system of claim 20 in which the only one color modifying aperture stop is positioned along only one of the separate primary color component light paths.

22. The system of claim 20 in which the only one color modifying aperture stop includes an aperture that is elongated in one direction.

23. The system of claim 20 in which the only one color modifying aperture stop includes an elliptical aperture.

24. The system of claim 20 in which the only one color modifying aperture stop includes a cropped circular aperture.

25. The system of claim 20 in which the only one color modifying aperture stop includes a cruciform aperture.