Vehicle composite pane with an integrated light sensor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10315390-B2
Application number	US-201615737675-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 14, 2016
Priority date	Dec 7, 2015
Publication date	Jun 11, 2019
Grant date	Jun 11, 2019

Abstract

A vehicle composite pane with an integrated light sensor is presented. The vehicle composite pane includes an outer pane and an inner pane that are bonded to one another via a thermoplastic intermediate layer. A photodiode situated on a circuit board is arranged between the outer pane and the inner pane, wherein the photodiode is a surface-mounted device (SMD) component.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A vehicle composite pane with an integrated light sensor, comprising:
an outer pane; and
an inner pane;
wherein
the outer pane and the inner pane are bonded to one another via a thermoplastic intermediate layer,
at least four photodiodes situated on a circuit board are arranged between the outer pane and the inner pane, the at least four photodiodes being serially connected groups of parallel connected photodiodes, and
each of the at least four photodiodes is a surface-mounted device component.

2. The vehicle composite pane according to claim 1 , wherein the circuit board is implemented as a flexible circuit board.

3. The vehicle composite pane according to claim 1 , wherein the at least four photodiodes are arranged as a matrix with rows and columns and wherein photodiodes of the parallel connected photodiodes are arranged neither all in one column nor all in one row.

4. The vehicle composite pane according to claim 3 , wherein a distance between adjacent photodiodes of a row is at least 5 cm.

5. The vehicle composite pane according to claim 1 , wherein the circuit board has a circuit board section with a width of at least 15 cm.

6. The vehicle composite pane according to claim 5 , wherein the at least four photodiodes are arranged in the circuit board section.

7. The vehicle composite pane according to claim 1 , wherein the at least four photodiodes have, in an entire spectral range between 500 nm and 600 nm, a sensitivity that corresponds to at least 50% of a maximum sensitivity.

8. The vehicle composite pane according to claim 1 wherein the composite pane includes a plurality of circuit boards, and each of the circuit boards contains at least four photodiodes.

9. The vehicle composite pane according to claim 1 , wherein the at least four photodiodes each have a width of less than 2 mm.

10. A method for producing a vehicle composite pane with an integrated light sensor, comprising:
providing an outer pane, an inner pane, a thermoplastic film, and at least one photodiode situated on a circuit board;
arranging the outer pane, the inner pane, the thermoplastic film and the circuit board in a stack such that the at least one photodiode is arranged between the outer pane and the inner pane;
forming an intermediate layer from the thermoplastic film; and
bonding, by lamination, the outer pane to the inner pane via the intermediate layer,

wherein the thermoplastic film is provided with holes or indentations that are coordinated in size, position and arrangement with the at least one photodiode,
the method further comprising inserting the at least one photodiode into the holes or indentations, before the step of arranging the outer pane, the inner pane, the thermoplastic film and the circuit board in a stack.

11. A method of using a vehicle composite pane with an integrated light sensor, comprising:
providing a composite pane according to claim 1 ; and
using the composite pane as a windshield of a vehicle.

12. The method according to claim 11 , further comprising:
connecting the one or more photodiodes to evaluation and control electronics of the vehicle; and
controlling a switching state of a vehicle lighting, transmittance properties of a pane region, and/or intensity of display elements in a vehicle interior as a function of an ambient light measured by the one or more photodiodes.

13. The vehicle composite pane according to claim 1 , wherein the at least four photodiodes are four photodiodes.

14. The vehicle composite pane according to claim 1 , wherein the at least four photodiodes are six photodiodes.

15. The vehicle composite pane according to claim 1 , wherein each of the parallel connected photodiodes comprises two photodiodes.

16. The vehicle composite pane according to claim 15 , wherein the groups of parallel connected photodiodes are two groups of parallel connected photodiodes.

17. The vehicle composite pane according to claim 15 , wherein the groups of parallel connected photodiodes are three groups of parallel connected photodiodes.

18. The vehicle composite pane according to claim 1 , wherein the circuit board has a circuit board section with a width of at least 20 cm.

19. The vehicle composite pane according to claim 1 , wherein the at least four photodiodes have, in an entire spectral range between 500 nm and 600 nm, a sensitivity that corresponds to at least 60% of a maximum sensitivity.

20. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the a vehicle is a motor vehicle.

Assignees

• Saint Gobain

Inventors

• Effertz Christian
• Schmalbuch Klaus
• Wohlfeil Dirk
• Duerkop Detlev
• Schwinges Guido

Classifications

• B32B17/10972

  Degassing during the lamination (B32B17/10816 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B32B17/10036 Primary

  comprising two outer glass sheets · CPC title

• B32B17/10761

  containing vinyl acetal · CPC title

• B60Q1/00

  Arrangement of optical signalling or lighting devices, the mounting or supporting thereof or circuits therefor (for lighting vehicle interior B60Q3/00) · CPC title

• B32B17/1077

  containing polyurethane · CPC title