Patent 7319558 was granted and assigned to Konica Minolta Holdings on January, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A wide-band wave plate having at least two wave plates, each of which has a microstructure to generate a phase difference, the microstructure having a cycle not shorter than 1/nmin of a shortest wavelength of light in use, wherein the two wave plates are arranged to face opposite with their main axes in non-parallel with each other, wherein nmin is a refractive index of a wave plate material with respect to the shortest wavelength.