Arc-Shaped Light Guiding Lens Prevents Leakage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional vehicular illumination devices with long bent light guiding lenses face light leakage issues due to random or parallel light incidence at sharp bend angles, leading to inefficient light guidance and increased size requirements for heat dissipation and miniaturization.
Innovation Solution
The illumination device incorporates a light guiding lens with a bend portion configured in an arc shape, featuring an incident face that allows light from an LED to enter at an angle of incidence equal to or greater than the critical angle, ensuring total reflection and preventing leakage, along with a condenser lens to collimate and condense light effectively.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If the light guiding lens is bent at a sharp angle to achieve miniaturization and compact layout, then the device size is reduced, but light leaks through the bend portion
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by creating a specific arc-shaped bend portion with a predetermined radius of curvature in the light guiding lens. This localized curved structure ensures that light incident on the bend portion strikes the inner face at an angle greater than or equal to the critical angle, enabling total internal reflection and preventing light leakage at this specific location while maintaining overall device compactness
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements spheroidality by forming the bend portion of the light guiding lens as an arc shape with a predetermined radius of curvature. This curved geometry is specifically designed to control the angle of incidence of light at the bend, ensuring total internal reflection occurs and preventing light leakage while allowing the lens to be bent at sharp angles for miniaturization
2Reliability
If the light guiding lens is made long to maintain optical performance, then light guidance is improved, but heat dissipation requirements increase device size
Solution Approach 1:
The arc-shaped bend portion with predetermined radius of curvature allows the light guiding lens to be folded or bent without compromising optical performance. This enables the lens to achieve the necessary light guidance length while maintaining a compact overall device size, as the curved geometry efficiently guides light around bends without leakage
3Ease of manufacture
If random light enters the light guiding lens to simplify light source configuration, then ease of manufacture is improved, but light leakage through the bend portion occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent addresses random light entry by creating a locally optimized arc-shaped bend portion with specific radius of curvature. This localized curved structure ensures that even when random light from simplified LED sources enters the lens, the light will strike the inner face of the bend portion at an angle greater than or equal to the critical angle, preventing leakage through total internal reflection
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This configuration effectively prevents light leakage at the bend portion, enhances light utility efficiency, and reduces the size and complexity of the illumination device while maintaining high optical performance, even with sharply bent lenses.
Implementation Method 1
light incident on an inner face of the bend portion on an outer side of the arc shape at an angle of incidence equal to or more than a critical angle
Data Source
AI summary
An illumination device can prevent light from leaking at a bend portion of a light guiding lens. The illumination device can include an LED and the light guiding lens for guiding light from the LED. The light guiding lens can include a light guiding portion extending in a predetermined extension direction and having a first end face and a second end face so as to guide the light entered through the first end face in the extension direction, and a bend portion continued from the second end face of the light guiding portion and bent in an arc shape. An incident face is disposed in the first end face to receive the light from the LED and to be incident on an inner surface of the bend portion on an outer side of the arc shape at an angle of incidence equal to or more than a critical angle.