Motor vehicle lighting device and method for improved matrix beam uniformity generation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11028993-B2
Application number	US-202016805145-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 28, 2020
Priority date	Sep 13, 2016
Publication date	Jun 8, 2021
Grant date	Jun 8, 2021

Abstract

A headlamp of a motor vehicle that uses individual light emitting diodes or LEDs to generate individual light beams, which collectively form a composite beam where some of the individual beams overlap neighboring beams because of manufacturing irregularities and form bright spots within the composite beam, which are not desirable. It is possible to de-focus the irregularities from individual beams to thereby spread out the bright spots, and reduce their intensities with another inventive goal to selectively defocus individual beams and soften the edges that apply glare to surrounding vehicles when individual beams are not adjacent individual beams or individual beams that are active and flank surrounding vehicles to be shut off.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A lamp assembly system of a vehicle comprising:
a housing that is configured to incorporate together the system's constituent elements;
a cover lens;
a number of light sources that generate an array or matrix of pixel images, wherein said system addresses a problem of overlapping beam sections of the array or matrix pixel images in at least one overlap area;
a number of light diffusers which diffuse light that reaches the at least one overlap area to reduce a light intensity thereof, wherein said number of diffusers is operable in either an on or off state,
where the at least one diffuser changes a direction of the light in an on state and the at least one diffuser is transparent in the off state;
a controller that is configured to manage output of said light sources and that is also configured to control each respective diffuser,

where said controller is configured to energize each respective diffuser to reduce light intensity of a related overlap projection area, where said controller is configured to not energize an associated respective diffuser when a non-illuminate condition is met, wherein said non-illuminate condition is determined by a transition that occurs along a number of sharp edges between an illuminated area and a non-illuminated area of said array or matrix of associated pixel images;
wherein said controller is configured to deactivate said diffusers associated with at least one of said light sources when the associated said light source is in an “on” state and defines an edge of an unlit tunnel.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein each diffuser includes at least one diffusing element per respective light source.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the cover lens includes at least one of the following types: a plano-concave lens (PCL), a flat lens (FL), a plano-convex lens (PXL), an imaging lens a liquid lens, a composite lens or some combination thereof.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein said system addresses the problem of overlapping beam sections caused from a number of pixels and corrects overlapping beam sections.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the problem is addressed or corrected through deactivation of groups of pixels associated with the number of light sources.

6. The system of claim 1 , further including a deformable optic.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein said diffusers include a deformable optic that alters a focal length in response to an electrical signal.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein said diffusers comprise an array of diffusing elements where each diffusing element in said array of diffusing elements comprise a lens which changes in curvature in response to electrical signals.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the light source is at least a type from the following: a light-emitting diode LED, a highly pixelized LED or a laser diode.

10. The system of claim 1 , further comprising an imaging lens which projects images of light produced by said plurality of light sources and wherein said at least one diffuser is located between said plurality of light sources and said imaging lens.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein each of said diffusers comprises a liquid lens comprising two liquids of different indices of refraction, which change shape in response to an electrical signal.

12. The system of claim 1 , said system further comprising at least one light guide associated with each light source, where each said light guide extends from an associated respective light source towards an associated respective diffuser.

13. The system of claim 1 , wherein said system includes a housing and a cover lens that cooperate to house both said number of light sources and said number of diffusers.

14. A light system of a motor vehicle system wherein said system further comprises:
a plurality of light sources,
a plurality of diffusers and
a controller that is configured to manage said light sources and said diffusers;
wherein said controller activates a portion of said light sources and deactivates a portion of said diffusers so as to generate a plurality of sharp edges and an unlit tunnel in said image array or matrix of pixel images;
said controller being further adapted to energize a first group of said light sources, the controller further adapted to deactivate a portion of said diffusers of an array or matrix of pixel images that cause a number of generally sharp transition edges between a number of overlap areas that are illuminated and non-illuminated; wherein said controller is further adapted to energize the first group of said light sources while activating a portion of said diffusers that cause the array or matrix of pixel images that include a smooth light intensity in a number of remaining portions of said overlap areas.

Assignees

• Valeo North America Inc

Inventors

• Orisich John Steven
• Potter Brant James

Classifications

• F21S41/255

  Lenses with a front view of circular or truncated circular outline · CPC title

• F21S41/635

  by moving refractors, filters or transparent cover plates · CPC title

• F21S41/24

  Light guides · CPC title

• F21S41/657

  by moving light sources · CPC title

• F21S41/63 Primary

  by acting on refractors, filters or transparent cover plates · CPC title