US Patent 9128226 Multibeam diffraction grating-based backlighting

Multibeam diffraction grating-based backlighting includes a light guide and a multibeam diffraction grating at a surface of the light guide. The light guide is to guide light from a light source. The multibeam diffraction grating is to couple out a portion of the guided light using diffractive coupling and to direct the coupled out portion away from the light guide as a plurality of light beams with different principal angular directions.