Rotating Lens Optical Unit for Automotive Headlamp Illumination
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing automotive headlamps require a large number of light-emitting elements to achieve wide area illumination, leading to increased cost and size, which restricts their layout and efficiency.
Innovation Solution
An optical unit with a rotating lens that scans a predetermined area using light emitted from a smaller light source, allowing for the formation of a desired light distribution pattern by varying the direction of light emission and incorporating multiple light-emitting elements of different colors to achieve white light.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If a large number of light-emitting elements are used to illuminate a wide area, then the illumination coverage is improved, but the apparatus size and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a movable lens that can change its position along the optical axis and laterally, enabling a single light source to dynamically scan and illuminate different areas. This dynamic positioning allows wide area coverage without requiring multiple simultaneous light-emitting elements, thus reducing apparatus size while maintaining illumination coverage.
Solution Approach 2:
The lens performs periodic scanning movements to cover the entire illumination area over time. By sequentially illuminating different regions through periodic lens displacement, the system achieves wide area coverage equivalent to multiple light sources but with a single compact light-emitting element.
2Area of stationary object
If a large number of light-emitting elements are used to illuminate a wide area, then the illumination coverage is improved, but the apparatus cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
A single light source combined with a movable lens performs the function of multiple light-emitting elements. The lens's ability to scan and redirect light enables one light source to cover areas that would traditionally require multiple sources, reducing component count and manufacturing cost while maintaining wide illumination coverage.
3Volume of stationary object
If the lens moves periodically to scan the front area, then the apparatus size is reduced, but the light distribution control becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates control means that receive signals from the lens position detection means and adjust the light source output accordingly. This feedback mechanism coordinates the lens movement with light emission timing and intensity, enabling precise light distribution control despite the added complexity of movable components.
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 solution enables a compact and cost-effective automotive headlamp design that can efficiently illuminate a wide area with adjustable brightness and color, reducing the need for multiple light sources and simplifying the mechanism, while maintaining effective light distribution patterns.
Implementation Method 1
a lens through which light emitted from a light source enters from behind and the light emits frontward as an irradiation beam... the lens is configured such that the lens rotates about a rotation axis connected to a drive part and such that a direction of light, which has emitted from the light source and is refracted when the light passes through the lens, varies periodically
Data Source
AI summary
An optical unit includes a lens through which light emitted from a light source 29 enters from behind and the light emits frontward as an irradiation beam. A rotation lens 26 moves periodically, and a front part is scanned with the irradiation beam, so that a predetermined irradiated region can be formed. The rotation lens 26 may be configured such that the lens rotates about a rotation axis connected to a drive part and such that the direction of light, which emits from the light source 29 and is then refracted when the light passes through the lens, varies periodically.