Headlamp for vehicles having at least one laser light source

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10408403-B2
Application number	US-201515523602-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 5, 2015
Priority date	Nov 7, 2014
Publication date	Sep 10, 2019
Grant date	Sep 10, 2019

Abstract

A headlamp for vehicles, in which the laser beam of at least one laser light source ( 1 ) is directed via a beam deflection means ( 7 ) towards at least one light conversion means ( 8 ) in a scanning manner, which at least one light conversion means comprises a phosphor for converting light, and having a projection system ( 10 ) for projecting the light image ( 9 ) generated at the light conversion means onto the roadway ( 11 ), characterized in that at least one electro-optical modulator ( 4 ) is arranged in the beam path of the at least one laser light source ( 1 ), which at least one electro-optical modulator is controlled by a control unit ( 12 ) and lies before the light conversion means ( 8 ) in the beam path and affects the polarization of the light, wherein a polarization element ( 3, 5, 17 ) is arranged at least after the modulator in the beam path.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A headlamp for vehicles, comprising:
at least one laser light source ( 1 ) configured to produce a laser beam;
a beam deflection means ( 7 );
at least one light conversion means ( 8 ), which comprise a phosphor for converting light, and which has a projection system ( 10 );
at least one electro-optical modulator ( 4 ) which is arranged in the beam path of the at least one laser light source ( 1 ); and
a polarisation element ( 3 , 5 , 17 ) which is arranged at least after the at least one electro-optical modulator ( 4 ) in the beam path
wherein the beam deflecting means is configured to direct the laser beam of the at least one laser light source ( 1 ) towards the at least one light conversion means ( 8 ) in a scanning manner and the projection system ( 10 ) is configured to project a light image ( 9 ) generated at the light conversion means onto a roadway ( 11 ), and
wherein the at least one electro-optical modulator ( 4 ) is controlled by a control unit ( 12 ) and lies before the light conversion means ( 8 ) in the beam path and affects the polarisation of the light.

2. The headlamp of claim 1 , wherein the control unit ( 12 ) is provided to control the electro-optical modulator ( 4 ) and a controller ( 14 ) of the beam deflection means ( 7 ).

3. The headlamp of claim 1 , wherein the polarising element ( 3 , 5 ) is a polarisation filter.

4. The headlamp of claim 1 , wherein the polarising element ( 17 ) is a polarising beam splitter.

5. The headlamp of claim 1 , wherein the electro-optical modulator ( 4 ) is formed as a Pockels cell.

6. The headlamp of claim 1 , wherein the at least one laser light source ( 1 ) comprises a laser diode ( 23 ), which is accommodated together with an electro-optical modulator ( 24 ) in a joint housing ( 20 ).

7. The headlamp of claim 1 , wherein two or more electro-optical modulators are arranged in succession in the beam path of the at least one laser light source ( 1 ).

8. The headlamp of claim 1 , wherein a focussing optics ( 6 ) for the laser beam ( 2 ′) is arranged downstream of the electro-optical modulator ( 4 ).

9. The headlamp of claim 1 , wherein the control unit ( 12 ) is designed to control the laser light source ( 1 ) and the electro-optical modulator ( 4 ) synchronously and to activate the electro-optical modulator when the laser light source is switched off so as to block the laser beam.

Assignees

• Zkw Group Gmbh

Inventors

• Edlinger Erik
• Weber Emanuel

Classifications

• F21S41/135 Primary

  Polarised · CPC title

• F21S41/176

  Light sources where the light is generated by photoluminescent material spaced from a primary light generating element · CPC title

• F21S41/16

  Laser light sources · CPC title

• F21S41/285

  Refractors, transparent cover plates, light guides or filters not provided in groups F21S41/24 - F21S41/2805 · CPC title

• G03B21/204

  using secondary light emission, e.g. luminescence or fluorescence (using different colours G03B33/00; if related to video signals H04N9/3197) · CPC title