Headlight for a motor vehicle and method for distributing light

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9777901-B2
Application number	US-201414766369-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 21, 2014
Priority date	Feb 7, 2013
Publication date	Oct 3, 2017
Grant date	Oct 3, 2017

Abstract

A motor vehicle headlight with at least one modulable laser light source, whose laser beam is directed onto a means of light conversion through a means of beam deflection controlled by a beam deflection control, and with a projection system to project the light image produced by the means of light conversion onto the road, wherein a first group of at least two laser light sources is provided to produce a first group of at least two essentially horizontal light bands lying on top of one another on the means of light conversion and a second group of at least two laser light sources is provided to produce a second group of at least two essentially horizontal light bands lying on top of one another on the means of light conversion, wherein the light bands of the first group and the light bands of the second group overlap one another.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A process for producing a specified light pattern on a road using a motor vehicle headlight, comprising:
directing at least one modulated laser beam onto a means of light conversion through at least one means of beam deflection, and
projecting a light image produced on the means of light conversion onto the road,
wherein laser beams of a first group of at least two laser light sources are directed, through the at least one means of beam deflection, onto the at least one means of light conversion to produce a first group of at least two substantially horizontal light bands lying on top of one another,
wherein laser beams of a second group of at least two laser light sources are directed, through the at least one means of beam deflection, onto the at least one means of light conversion to produce a second group of at least two substantially horizontal light bands lying on top of one another,
wherein the light bands of the first group and the light bands of the second group partially overlap one another at the same time along a vertical axis.

2. The process of claim 1 , wherein the overlap is between about 10% and 90% of a height of the light bands.

3. The process of claim 1 , wherein a distance of the light bands from one another, and thereby an extent of the overlap, is determined by an angle of incidence of the laser beams on the at least one means of beam deflection.

4. The process of claim 1 , wherein the at least one means of beam deflection have at least one micromirror pivoting about an axis.

5. The process of claim 4 , further comprising oscillating an amplitude of the at least one micromirror to adjust a length of the light bands.

6. The process of claim 1 , wherein a shape and size of spots produced on the at least one means of light conversion are determined by beam-forming optics and/or a distance of the at least one means of light conversion from focal points of the beam-forming optics.

7. The process of claim 6 , wherein the spots are produced in an ellipse-like shape with a longer vertical axis.

8. The process of claim 1 , wherein the first group of at least two laser light sources are associated with a first mean of deflection, and wherein the second group of at least two laser light sources are associated with a second mean of deflection.

9. A motor vehicle headlight, comprising:
at least one modulable laser light source having a laser beam that is directed onto at least one means of light conversion, which has a phosphor for light conversion, through a means of beam deflection controlled by a beam deflection control, and with a projection system to project a light image produced by the at least one means of light conversion onto a road,
a first group of at least two laser light sources to produce a first group of at least two substantially horizontal light bands lying on top of one another on the at least one means of light conversion, and
a second group of at least two laser light sources to produce a second group of at least two substantially horizontal light bands lying on top of one another on the at least one means of light conversion, wherein
the laser light sources have a laser control assigned to them and are configured to produce laser beams that are directed through the means of beam deflection onto the at least one means of light conversion in such a way that the light bands of the first group and the light bands of the second group partially overlap one another at the same time along a vertical axis.

10. The headlight of claim 9 , wherein the overlap of the light bands is between about 10% and 90% of the height of the light bands.

11. The headlight of claim 9 , wherein a distance of the light bands from one another, and thereby an extent of the overlap, is determined by an angle of incidence of the laser beams on the means of beam deflection.

12. The headlight of claim 9 , wherein the light bands produced by the laser light sources of the first group and the light bands produced by the laser light sources of the second group are directly adjacent to one another, without any separation.

13. The headlight of claim 9 , wherein the means of beam deflection have at least one micromirror pivoting about an axis.

14. The headlight of claim 13 , wherein the at least one micromirror is controlled through the beam deflection control, which oscillates the at least one micromirror at its mechanical natural frequency.

15. The headlight of claim 9 , wherein each group of laser light sources has a micromirror assigned to it.

16. The headlight of claim 15 , wherein a horizontal swing amplitude of the micromirrors can be changed through the beam deflection control.

17. The headlight of claim 9 , wherein each laser light source has collimating optics downstream of it.

18. The headlight of claim 17 , wherein each group of laser light sources and the means of beam deflection have a converging lens followed by a diverging lens arranged between the collimating optics and the means of beam deflection.

19. The headlight of claim 9 , wherein the laser light sources are laser diodes.

20. The headlight of claim 9 , wherein each group of laser light sources has a means of light conversion and a projection system assigned to it.

21. The headlight of claim 9 , wherein the overlap of the light bands is about 50% of the height of the light bands.

Assignees

• Zizala Lichtsysteme Gmbh
• Zkw Group Gmbh

Inventors

• Reinprecht Markus
• Bauer Friedrich
• Reisinger Bettina

Classifications

• F21S41/00

  Illuminating devices specially adapted for vehicle exteriors, e.g. headlamps (reversing lights F21S43/00) · CPC title

• F21S41/25

  Projection lenses · CPC title

• F21S41/151

  arranged in one or more lines · CPC title

• F21S41/176

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

• F21Y2101/00

  Point-like light sources · CPC title