LED backlight

The present invention provides an LED backlight for use with a display panel, the backlight comprising: a monolithic LED array having a surface and comprising a plurality of LEDs for emitting light from the surface of the array; a monolithic collimator array comprising a plurality of collimating channels, and being aligned so that each of the collimating channels is aligned with one or more of the plurality of LEDs, wherein the collimating channels are configured to collimate emitted light emitted from the LEDs to angles in the range of about +/- 50 DEG from a line substantially normal to the surface of the LED array; a microlens array for focusing the collimated light to infinity, the microlens array comprising a plurality of lenslets, each lenslet aligned with a collimating channel of the monolithic collimator array; and a relay lens for focusing the light from the microlens array on a display panel.