Light guide for automotive lighting

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2019032884-A1
Application number	US-201715664915-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 31, 2017
Priority date	Jul 31, 2017
Publication date	Jan 31, 2019
Grant date	—

Abstract

A light assembly for a vehicle including a light source that provides an incident light, a pair of bezels adjacent to the light source, and a light guide. The light guide has an entrance face that receives the incident light, an exit face from which the incident light exits the light guide, an outboard face that joins the entrance face and the exit face, an inboard face opposite to the outboard face, and a side cut that joins the inboard face to the exit face, wherein the side cut deviates the incident light to spread the exiting light between a maximum inboard angle and a maximum outboard angle.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A light guide comprising:
an entrance face that receives incident light; an exit face from which the incident light exits the light guide;
a side wall that joins the entrance face and the exit face such that the incident light is guided by total internal reflection (TIR) to the exit face; and
a curved side cut positioned on the side wall and configured to divert the incident light to spread the exiting light over a predetermined angular range with respect to the side wall.

2 . The light guide of claim 1 , wherein the exit face is concave such that the exiting light is diverging to spread the exiting light over a predetermined range.

3 . The light guide of claim 1 , wherein the exit face is convex such that the exiting light is converging to spread the exiting light over a predetermined range.

4 . The light guide of claim 1 , wherein the side wall is a continuous surface.

5 . The light guide of claim 1 , wherein the side wall includes an inboard face and an outboard face substantially parallel to the inboard face.

6 . The light guide of claim 4 , wherein the side cut is a curved surface pointing towards the outboard face to reflect the incident light towards outboard angles.

7 . The light guide of claim 6 , wherein the curved surface is characterized by a radius of curvature between 1 mm and 20 mm, a length of the light guide is between 20 mm and 100 mm, and a width of the light guide is between 5 mm and 50 mm.

8 . The light guide of claim 7 , wherein the exiting light has a predetermined angular range defined by a maximum angle of between 10° and 100° with respect to one surface of the sidewall, and a maximum angle of between 10° and 90° with respect to another surface of the sidewall opposed to the one surface of the sidewall.

9 . A light assembly comprising:
a light source that provides incident light; a pair of bezels adjacent to the light source; and a light guide having:
an entrance face that receives the incident light,
an exit face from which the incident light exits the light guide,
an outboard face that joins the entrance face and the exit face,
an inboard face opposite to the outboard face, and
a curved side cut that joins the inboard face to the exit face, wherein the side cut is configured to divert the incident light to spread the exiting light over a predetermined angular range with respect to the side wall without additional optical elements.

10 . The light assembly of claim 9 , wherein the incident light is substantially homogeneous in an axial direction.

11 . The light assembly of claim 10 , wherein the light source includes a tubular light guide extending along the axial direction.

12 . The light assembly of claim 10 , wherein the light source includes a plurality of individual solid state light sources placed equidistantly along the axial direction of the light guide.

13 . The light assembly of claim 9 , wherein the side cut is a curved surface pointing towards the outboard face to reflect the incident light towards the exit face and to direct the exiting light in an outboard direction.

14 . The light assembly of claim 13 , wherein the curved surface is characterized by a radius of curvature between 1 mm and 20 mm, a length of the light guide is between 20 mm and 100 mm, and a width of the light guide is between 5 mm and 50 mm.

15 . The light assembly of claim 14 , wherein the exiting light has a predetermined angular range defined by an maximum angle of between 10° and 100° with respect to one surface of the sidewall, and a maximum angle of between 10° and 90° with respect to another surface of the sidewall opposed to the one surface of the sidewall

16 . A lighting system for vehicle comprising;
a power source; a printed circuit board coupled to the power source; and a light assembly operatively connected to the printed circuit board, the light assembly including:
a light source that provides an incident light;
a pair of bezels adjacent to the light source; and
a light guide having:
an entrance face that receives the incident light,
an exit face from which the incident light exits the light guide, an outboard face that joins the entrance face and the exit face,
an inboard face opposite to the outboard face, and
a side cut that joins the inboard face to the exit face, wherein

the side cut deviates the incident light to spread the exiting light between a maximum inboard angle and a maximum outboard angle.

17 . The lighting system of claim 16 , wherein the side cut is a curved surface pointing towards the outboard face to reflect the incident light towards the exit face.

18 . The lighting system of claim 17 , wherein the curved surface is characterized by a radius of curvature between 1 mm and 20 mm, a length of the light guide is between 20 mm and 100 mm, and a width of the light guide is between 5 mm and 50 mm.

19 . The lighting system of claim 18 , wherein the outboard maximum angle is between 10° and 100°.

20 . The lighting system of claim 19 , wherein the inboard maximum angle is between 10° and 90°.

Assignees

• Valeo North America Inc

Inventors

• Martus Cameron
• Darlage Colby
• Cleavenger Todd

Classifications

• F21S48/25

  Mechanical Engineering · mapped topic

• F21S48/2268 Primary

  Mechanical Engineering · mapped topic

• F21S48/2237

  Mechanical Engineering · mapped topic

• F21S48/2243

  Mechanical Engineering · mapped topic

• F21S43/50 Primary

  characterised by aesthetic components not otherwise provided for, e.g. decorative trim, partition walls or covers · CPC title