Colored Polymer Lighting Profile for White LED Color Mixing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current lighting devices using monochromatic LEDs face limitations such as a narrower portfolio, slower technological advancements, larger package size, higher cost, wider flux and voltage distribution, and limited color selection compared to white LEDs, making them less desirable for flexible, diffused lighting applications.
Innovation Solution
A lighting device employing a flexible, elongated profiled body with a co-extruded structure incorporating a white light engine and a colored layer that can be modified to change the emitted color by adjusting the pigment blend, allowing for the exploitation of white LED technological and cost improvements while maintaining a uniform appearance when off.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If monochromatic LEDs are used to achieve specific color lighting, then color selection is possible, but the portfolio is narrower, technological improvements are slower, package size is bigger, cost is higher, and flux/voltage distribution is wider
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a white LED light source combined with a colored polymer layer that can be extruded in different colors to achieve various lighting colors. This avoids the need for different monochromatic LED packages while maintaining color versatility. The colored layer absorbs specific wavelengths and transmits others, creating the desired color output without requiring larger LED packages.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention combines white LED chips with a colored polymer matrix in a composite structure. The polymer layer serves multiple functions: color filtering, light diffusion, and mechanical protection. This composite approach allows using compact white LEDs while achieving specific colors through the polymer layer, reducing overall package size compared to monochromatic LED solutions.
2Adaptability or versatility
If a colored layer is added to achieve specific color output, then color selection is improved, but the device structure becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the color filtering function with the protective case structure by integrating the colored polymer layer into the housing itself. This eliminates the need for separate color filters or additional optical components, simplifying the overall device structure while maintaining color selection capability. The colored layer becomes part of the structural envelope rather than an add-on component.
Solution Approach 2:
The colored polymer layer performs multiple functions simultaneously: it acts as a color filter, a light diffusion medium, a protective enclosure, and a structural support. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate components, thereby simplifying device structure while achieving versatile color output.
3Adaptability or versatility
If monochromatic LEDs are used for specific color output, then color specificity is achieved, but cost increases and technological improvements are slower
Solution Approach 1:
The invention uses a single white LED light source combined with a colored polymer layer to achieve specific colors. This approach leverages the mature and cost-effective white LED technology while using relatively inexpensive polymer materials for color filtering. It avoids the higher costs associated with monochromatic LEDs by using a universal white LED platform with colorimetric modification.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the optical parameters of the light output by introducing a colored polymer layer with specific absorption characteristics. Instead of changing the LED chip type (which increases cost), the solution modifies the light spectrum through the polymer's selective absorption, achieving color specificity at lower cost using established white LED manufacturing.
4Reliability
If a protected case is used to protect the light engine, then environmental protection is improved, but the light output performance is slightly reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The protective case is made from a light-permeable polymer material that combines protection with optical functionality. The polymer allows sufficient light transmission while providing environmental protection, and the colored layer within it performs color filtering without significantly blocking overall light output. This composite structure balances protection and light output performance.
Solution Approach 2:
The colored polymer layer is designed to selectively absorb specific wavelengths while transmitting others, rather than blocking all light. This selective color filtering maintains high overall light transmission while achieving the desired color output, thus protecting the light engine without significantly compromising illumination intensity.
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
Enables the creation of specific color modules with improved light flux and color selection, utilizing the same flexible light engine, and simplifies the extrusion process by combining color filtering and diffusive functions into a single layer, reducing material complexity and maintaining a white external appearance.
Implementation Method 1
a first layer (12b), facing said light engine, including a light-permeable colored material which is transparent or partially diffusive, the coloured (i.e. non-white) appearance whereof may be achieved with pigments
Implementation Method 2
a second layer (12c), on the opposite side of said light engine, including a light-permeable diffusive material
Data Source
AI summary
A lighting device includes an elongated profiled body including at least one light permeable material, e.g. a polymeric material, having a mouth portion where an e.g. white light radiation source assembly is arranged which includes one or more electrically powered light radiation sources facing the profiled body. The light radiation emitted by the light radiation source assembly propagates through the light permeable material of the profiled body. The material of the profiled body includes pigments and is at least in part light diffusive, whereby, by propagating through profiled body, the light radiation becomes a colored light radiation of a color determined by the pigments and with a homogeneous near field distribution.