312 for use in a color imaging device light rays 316 from an external source passes through the colored microlenses 304 308 312 and are incident upon a set of sensors 320 324 and 328 each microlens 304 308 312 in the set typically allows a different color of light to pass through thus in one embodiment one microlens may be red another blue and a third microlens green together the set of three microlenses detect light corresponding to a pixel of an image in this embodiment the three microlenses 304 308 312 are located in close proximity to each other typically within one micron each microlens 304 205 312 positioned to allow one color of light to reach the sensor 320 324 328 corresponding to the microlens 304 308 342 respectively a processor or other appropriate graphic circuitry can combine the output of the three sensors 320 324 328 to determine a color and intensity of light striking the general region around the three sensors 320 324 328 in an image the general region corresponds to a pixel to improve resolution pixels should be small and thus the microlenses should be small the diameter of microlens ranges in size from 8 microns to 15 microns for different devices 0022 fig4 illustrates the use of color microlens 404 408 412 in a color display device a light source 416 provides illumination which passes through microlenses 404 408 412 through a counter substrate layer 416 and to a liquid crystal display lcd layer 420 each microlens of a set filters a different color as well as focuses light from the light source 416 to a particular region of the lcd crystal layer 420 being switched the crystals in the.