Lighting device for a motor vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9562660-B2
Application number	US-201414256298-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 18, 2014
Priority date	Oct 28, 2011
Publication date	Feb 7, 2017
Grant date	Feb 7, 2017

Abstract

A lighting device for a motor vehicle includes one or more lighting units, herein during operation a respective lighting unit generates a point-shaped light source via laser light. In addition, optical device is configured and arranged with respect to the lighting unit or lighting units in such a way that a predetermined distribution of light composed of the light of the point-shaped light source is generated after it passes through the optical device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A lighting device for a motor vehicle, comprising:
one or more laser lighting units, at least one of the one or more laser lighting units having:
a laser diode generating a first punctiform light source, wherein the first punctiform light source, in a top view along an optical axis, has a first radiation area, and
a converter generating a second punctiform light source from the first punctiform light source, wherein the second punctiform light source, in the top view along the optical axis, has a second radiation area greater than the first radiation area; and

an optical device configured and arranged with respect to the one or more laser lighting units such that a predetermined distribution of light from the second punctiform light source is generated after one or more of: (i) passing through and (ii) reflected by the optical device.

2. The lighting device according to claim 1 , wherein the second punctiform light source, in the top view, has a maximum dimension of 500 μm or less.

3. The lighting device according to claim 1 , wherein the second punctiform light source, in the top view, has a maximum dimension of 20 μm or less.

4. The lighting source according to claim 1 , wherein the second punctiform light source, in the top view, has an emitting surface of 0.5 mm 2 or less.

5. The lighting source according to claim 1 , wherein the second punctiform light source, in the top view, has an emitting surface of 0.0002 mm 2 or less.

6. The lighting device according to claim 1 , wherein the second punctiform light source, in the top view, has an emitting surface with edges each having a length of 500 μm or less.

7. The lighting device according to claim 1 , wherein the second punctiform light source, in the top view, has an emitting surface with edges each having a length of 20 μm or less.

8. The lighting device according to claim 1 , wherein the second punctiform light source is configured to generated a light flux of 100 lm or more, a radiant power of 1 Watt or more, and a luminance of at least 10 5 Cd/m 2 or more.

9. The lighting device according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one of the one or more laser lighting units generates a punctiform white light source.

10. The lighting device according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one of the one or more laser lighting units comprises a plurality of laser diodes.

11. The lighting device according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one of the one or more laser lighting units comprises one or more monochromatic laser diodes.

12. The lighting device according to claim 9 ,
wherein the converter is configured to generate the punctiform white light source from the laser diode that generates monochromatic laser light.

13. The lighting device according to claim 12 , wherein the converter comprises a phosphor conversion layer on which the generated monochromatic laser light from the laser diode is focused via a further optical device, wherein the punctiform white light source is generated using the phosphor conversion layer.

14. The lighting device according to claim 12 , wherein the converter comprises an optical waveguide, in which generated monochromatic laser light of a plurality of monochromatic laser diodes is combined for generating white light.

15. The light device according to claim 10 , wherein at least one of the plurality of laser diodes is an individual monochromatic laser diode.

16. The lighting device according to claim 10 , wherein the plurality of laser diodes have a luminance power of at least 1 Watt.

17. The lighting device according to claim 10 , wherein the plurality of laser diodes have a luminance power of between 1.5 and 5 Watts.

18. The lighting device according to claim 1 , wherein three to six lighting units are provided.

19. The lighting device according to claim 1 , wherein the lighting device comprises a vehicle headlight or a signal light.

20. The lighting device according to claim 1 , wherein the optical device comprises a reflector and/or a lens.

21. The lighting device according to claim 1 , wherein the optical device, in the top view, has a maximum dimension of 50 mm or less.

Assignees

• Bayerische Motoren Werke Ag

Inventors

• Erdl Helmut
• Hanafi Abdelmalek

Classifications

• F21S43/14

  Light emitting diodes [LED] · CPC title

• F21S43/16

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

• F21S41/176

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

• F21S48/214

  Mechanical Engineering · mapped topic

• F21S48/215

  Mechanical Engineering · mapped topic