Patent 7942565 was granted and assigned to Osram Opto Semiconductors GmbH on May, 2011 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
An illumination device is specified which has a light source (1) suitable for coupling divergent electromagnetic radiation (6) into an optical waveguide (2), the electromagnetic radiation (6) being guided in the optical waveguide (2) on the basis of total reflection the optical waveguide (2) being suitable for changing a main radiating direction (17) of the electromagnetic radiation (6), and the optical waveguide (2) being formed in one piece. Light-emitting diodes are preferably used as the light source (1). The illumination device is particularly well suited to the backlighting of displays.