Vehicle Lighting Device Refractive Diffuser Design
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional vehicle lighting devices face limitations in design flexibility, installation space, and manufacturing complexity, particularly when achieving complex lighting signatures with specific intensity distributions and viewing angle-dependent effects, while also requiring reduced manufacturing costs for mass production.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle lighting device utilizing a refractive diffuser with a statistical, continuous surface profile calculated using wave optics, which generates desired light signatures through refraction, offering design freedom and avoiding undesirable diffraction effects, and can be combined with a mirror for enhanced light control.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional mirrors, prisms, and macroscopic scattering structures are used to achieve desired lighting effects, then lighting device functionality is improved, but device complexity and manufacturing cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces conventional mechanical optical elements (mirrors, prisms, macroscopic scattering structures) with a micro-structured diffuser layer having sub-wavelength periodic structures. This substitution simplifies the overall device architecture while maintaining the ability to achieve desired lighting effects through carefully designed micro-structures that control light propagation without requiring complex mechanical components.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the scale parameter of optical structures from macroscopic (conventional mirrors and prisms) to microscopic (sub-wavelength periodic structures). This parameter change enables new optical effects while reducing device complexity, as the micro-structures can be integrated into a single layer rather than requiring multiple separate optical components.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple light sources are used to generate complex lighting signatures, then lighting signature complexity is improved, but manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the optical functionality into two parts: a simple light source and a micro-structured diffuser layer. The diffuser layer is divided into multiple zones with different periodic structures, each zone controlling light in specific directions. This segmentation allows complex lighting signatures to be achieved through a single light source combined with a zoned diffuser structure, reducing manufacturing cost compared to using multiple light sources.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a micro-structured diffuser layer as an intermediary between the light source and the external environment. This intermediary layer performs the complex light manipulation function that would otherwise require multiple light sources, by using sub-wavelength periodic structures to control light propagation, reflection, and emission in specific directions to create desired lighting signatures.
3Manufacturing precision
If conventional diffraction gratings are used to control light direction, then light control precision is improved, but unwanted diffraction effects increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different periodic structures to different zones of the diffuser layer, with each zone having locally optimized structures tailored to its specific function. This local quality approach allows precise control of light direction in each zone while minimizing unwanted diffraction effects by designing structures that direct light only in desired directions based on local optical requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent converts the potential harmful effect of diffraction into a beneficial control mechanism by using sub-wavelength periodic structures that exploit diffraction physics to achieve precise light direction control. The periodic structures are designed so that diffraction occurs only in desired directions, transforming what could be unwanted side effects into the primary mechanism for achieving the desired lighting effects.
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 provides significant design flexibility, reduces the need for multiple light sources, and allows for cost-effective production of lighting devices with complex light signatures that change with viewing direction, enhancing both aesthetic and functional aspects of vehicle lighting.
Implementation Method 1
light from the light source passes through the refractive diffuser to generate a luminous signature
Implementation Method 2
The refractive diffuser has a wave-optically calculated statistical continuous surface profile
Data Source
Figure 1~2B
Figure 3~4B
Figure 5A~5D
AI summary
The invention relates to lighting devices for vehicles, for example headlights or tail lights. Basically any lighting characteristic for the lighting device which provides a large degree of freedom in terms of design is provided by means of a refractive diffuser (50).