Light guiding lens for a vehicle headlamp

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10634301-B2
Application number	US-201615766552-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 19, 2016
Priority date	Oct 7, 2015
Publication date	Apr 28, 2020
Grant date	Apr 28, 2020

Abstract

A headlamp lens includes a transparent body having at least one light tunnel defining at least one entry area, and a light-directing part with at least one optically active light exit area. The light entry area merging into the light-directing part at a sharp end to project a light/dark boundary by means of light coupled or radiated into the light entry area.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A vehicle headlight comprising a headlight lens of transparent material, the headlight lens comprising:
a light input section having at least one light entry face, a light tunnel extending from the light entry face in a direction defining an optical axis, and a transition portion with at least one transition surface located opposite the light entry face and curved in a plane parallel to the optical axis; and
a light passage section having a light exit face defined by a central segment and at least two side segments offset from the central segment in a lateral direction orthogonal to the optical axis,
wherein the light passage section is optically coupled to the transition portion such that the transition surface is imaged by the light passage section as a bright-dark boundary, and each of the side segments collimates a light bundle incident on the light entry surface along a plane containing an axis orthogonal to the optical axis and the lateral direction, the light input section and the light passage section forming a body made of a transparent material.

2. The headlight as claimed in claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of an upper surface of the light tunnel is an ellipsoid whose major semiaxis extends in the lateral direction with the minor semiaxis extending orthogonal to the optical axis and the lateral direction, the major semiaxis being at least three times longer than the minor semiaxis.

3. The headlight as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a surface of the light passage section facing the light tunnel comprises an M-shaped Petzval face region.

4. The headlight as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the transition surface is an M-shaped surface.

5. The headlight as claimed in claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of an upper surface of the light tunnel is an ellipsoid whose major semiaxis extends in the lateral direction with the minor semiaxis extending orthogonal to the optical axis and the lateral direction, the major semiaxis being at least 1.9 times longer than the minor semiaxis.

6. The headlight as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the transition surfaces comprises an M-shaped region along its longitudinal direction.

7. The headlight as claimed in claim 1 , a second side face of the light tunnel, opposite a first side face of the light tunnel, being curved corresponding to a second Bézier curve.

8. The headlight as claimed in claim 7 , wherein at least one of the following conditions are met:
0.3·d 1 ≤s 1 ≤0.7·d 1 ,
0.4·d 2 ≤s 2 ≤1.5·d 2 ,
1.5≤d 1 /d 2 ≤10, and
0.3≤g≤0.7,
and wherein
a starting point of the Bézier curve has coordinates of 0.0,
d 1 ,d 2 are coordinates of an end point of the Bézier curve,
s 1 ,s 2 are coordinates of at least one control point of the Bézier curve, and
g is a weighting of a control point of the Bézier curve.

9. The headlight as claimed in claim 1 , a first side face of the light tunnel being curved corresponding to a first Bézier curve.

10. The headlight as claimed in claim 9 , wherein at least one of the following condition are met:
0.3·d 1 ≤s 1 ≤0.7·d 1 ,
0.4·d 2 ≤s 2 ≤1.5·d 2 ,
1.5≤d 1 /d 2 ≤10, and
0.3≤g≤0.7,
and wherein
a starting point of the first Bézier curve has coordinates of 0.0,
d 1 ,d 2 are coordinates of an end point of the first Bézier curve,
s 1 ,s 2 are coordinates of at least one control point of the first Bézier curve, and
g is a weighting of a control point of the first Bézier curve.

11. The headlight as claimed in claim 9 , a second side face of the light tunnel, opposite the first side face, being curved corresponding to a second Bézier curve.

12. The headlight as claimed in claim 11 , wherein at least one of the following conditions are met:
0.3·d 1 ≤s 1 ≤0.7·d 1 ,
0.4·d 2 ≤s 2 ≤1.5·d 2 ,
1.5≤d 1 /d 2 ≤10, and
0.3≤g≤0.7,
and wherein
a starting point of the second Bézier curve has coordinates of 0.0,
d 1 ,d 2 are coordinates of an end point of the second Bézier curve,
s 1 ,s 2 are coordinates of at least the or one control point of the second Bézier curve, and
g is a weighting of a control point of the second Bézier curve.

13. A headlight lens for a vehicle headlight comprising:
a light input section having at least one light entry face, a light tunnel extending from the light entry face in a direction defining an optical axis, and a transition portion with at least one transition surface located opposite the light entry face and curved in a plane parallel to the optical axis; and
a light passage section having a light exit face defined by a central segment and at least two segments offset from the central segment in a lateral direction orthogonal to the optical axis,
wherein the light passage section is optically coupled to the transition portion such that the transition surface is imaged by the light passage section as a bright-dark boundary, and each of the side segments collimates a light bundle incident on the light entry surface along a plane containing a direction which is orthogonal to the optical axis and the lateral direction, the light input section and the light passage section forming a body made of a transparent material and
wherein a first side face of the light tunnel is curved corresponding to a Bézier curve.

14. The headlight lens as claimed in claim 13 , the light exit face having no more than four side segments.

15. A headlight lens body for a vehicle headlight, the body made of a transparent material and comprising:
a light input section having at least one light entry face, a light tunnel extending from the light entry face in a direction defining an optical axis, and a transition portion with at least one transition surface located opposite the light entry face and curved in a plane parallel to the optical axis; and
a light passage section having at least one light exit face, defined by at least two segments extending in a lateral direction orthogonal to the optical axis; and
wherein at least one of the segments is limited by a function

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Assignees

• Docter Optics Se
• Doctor Optics SE

Inventors

• Tessmer Manuel
• Mozaffari-Afshar Mohsen
• Kühl Siemen

Classifications

• F21S41/265

  Composite lenses; Lenses with a patch-like shape · CPC title

• F21S41/24

  Light guides · CPC title

• G02B19/0028

  refractive and reflective surfaces, e.g. non-imaging catadioptric systems · CPC title

• F21S41/155

  Surface emitters, e.g. organic light emitting diodes [OLED] · CPC title

• F21S41/322

  the reflector using total internal reflection · CPC title