Light Guide Element With Interlapped Microstructures
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Solution Overview
Problem
Light guide elements used in lighting fixtures face issues with reduced brightness and pattern defects due to the formation of designed patterns on one surface, leading to non-uniform light emission and processing deviations.
Innovation Solution
A light guide element with first and second microstructures on opposite surfaces that interlap to create a mesh pattern, enhancing brightness and blurring pattern defects caused by processing errors, utilizing a sinusoidal functional relation for optimal alignment and size variation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a designed pattern is formed on one surface of the light guide element by arranging dots or microstructures, then the ornamentation function is improved, but the brightness of the light guide element is decreased
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from forming patterns on a single surface to forming interlapped patterns on both opposite surfaces of the light guide element. By adding the second surface pattern formation, the solution moves from one-dimensional surface modification to two-dimensional multi-surface coordination, allowing the mesh pattern to maintain brightness while providing ornamentation.
Solution Approach 2:
The pattern formation is segmented into two separate surfaces with distinct microstructure arrangements. The first surface has a first arrangement of microstructures, while the second surface has a second arrangement that interlaps with the first, creating a mesh pattern. This segmentation allows each surface to contribute differently to the overall optical effect.
2Ease of manufacture
If a designed pattern is formed on one surface of the light guide element, then the ornamentation function is improved, but pattern defects due to processing errors become obvious
Solution Approach 1:
The second surface pattern acts as an intermediary that masks and blurs the defects from the first surface pattern. By creating an interlapped mesh pattern through the combination of both surfaces, processing deviations and defects in one surface are obscured by the overlapping pattern from the other surface, reducing the visibility of manufacturing imperfections.
3Shape
If dots or microstructures are arranged to form a pattern on one surface, then the light-emitting pattern is achieved, but the light concentration is reduced uniformly across the surface
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the pattern formation functions of two separate surfaces into a unified mesh pattern system. By combining the first arrangement and second arrangement of microstructures on opposite surfaces, the solution creates an interlapped pattern that distributes light more uniformly across the entire surface while maintaining the desired decorative pattern.
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
The mesh pattern created by interlapped microstructures maintains brightness while providing a uniform and dynamic light emission, reducing the impact of processing defects and offering a novel, animated pattern design for decorative lighting fixtures.
Implementation Method 1
The optical conduction principle of the light guide element is based on the Snell's Law. When light is going to enter a less dense medium from an optical dense medium, i.e. the light is going to enter the medium of a lower refractive index from the medium of a high refractive index
Implementation Method 2
When light is going to enter a less dense medium from an optical dense medium, and an incident angle is greater than a critical angle, the light is totally reflected on an interface between the two mediums
Data Source
AI summary
A light guide element and a lighting fixture are described. The light guide element includes a light guide body, first microstructures and second microstructures. The light guide body includes a first light-emitting surface and a second light-emitting surface opposite to and parallel to each other. The first microstructures are disposed on the first light-emitting surface in rows. The second microstructures are respectively corresponding to the first microstructures and are disposed on the second light-emitting surface. In each of the rows, each of the first microstructures laps over the corresponding second microstructure in part in a normal direction of the first light-emitting surface. Overlapping ratio of the first microstructures and the corresponding second microstructures become greater from one end of one of the rows to the other end of the one of the rows.