University of Rochester

Energy Focus, Inc.

Teledyne Reynolds, Inc.

Blair L Unger

Duncan T Moore

Greg R Schmidt

Michael Brown

John M Davenport

David Pelka

Roger F Buelow, Ii

Roger F Buelow

Laszlo A Takacs

Gregory P Frankiewicz

George Panagotacos

Joseph G Kaveski

A light guide apparatus includes a light guide layer having a top surface and a bottom surface, and a transversely oriented side-end surface that forms an output aperture of the light guide, characterized by an index of refraction, n, and further characterized by a length dimension in an intended light propagation direction towards the output aperture, where the intended light propagation direction is a z-axis direction of a Cartesian coordinate system; and a plurality of light injection elements disposed in the form of at least one linear strip in at least one of the top and bottom surfaces of the light guide layer, wherein some of the plurality of light injection elements are disposed on one lateral side of the strip and some other of the plurality of light injection elements are disposed on an opposing lateral side of the strip at a rotation angle &#x394;z about the y-axis.

Light collecting and emitting apparatus, method, and applications

An elongated LED lighting arrangement comprises an elongated fiberoptic light pipe having an exteriorly facing sidewall between its ends. The light pipe is constructed to promote TIR of light between the ends. A first LED light source is tuned to efficiently provide light within a wavelength range to the pipe. Light-extracting means are applied along the light pipe along the main path of TIR light propagation, and comprise down-converting means tuned to efficiently convert light rays from the LED light source within the wavelength range to lower-energy light rays at respectively longer wavelengths and light-scattering means for extracting from the pipe some light rays within the wavelength range without changing the wavelengths of the foregoing light. The light emitted by the down-converting means and the light-scattering means intermix to produce light, the majority of which has a composite color determined by the foregoing light emitted and the foregoing light extracted.

Elongated LED lighting arrangement

An elongated LED lighting arrangement comprises an elongated light pipe with homogeneous optical material between first and second ends. In an exemplary embodiment, an LED provides blue light to the light pipe via a first dichroic mirror tuned to pass blue light. Down-converting means on sidewall of the light pipe, tuned to receive blue light, absorbs blue light from the LED and to emit lower-energy light outside of the light pipe at respectively higher wavelengths. Light-extracting means on the sidewall extract from the light pipe some blue light without changing the wavelengths of the foregoing light. Light from the down-converting means and the light-extracting means are combined to provide a composite color. The first dichroic mirror receives some light emitted by the down-converting means and reflects back into the light pipe more than 80 percent of the light received by the mirror.

A collimating waveguide, an optical backlight apparatus, and a method of producing a collimated beam of radiant electromagnetic energy are disclosed. A collimating waveguide comprises an input surface to receive radiant electromagnetic energy from a point source and an output surface to emit an output beam of substantially collimated radiant electromagnetic energy. A first collimating surface of the waveguide receives a beam of the radiant electromagnetic energy entering from the input surface traveling in a first direction and reflects the radiant electromagnetic energy into a substantially collimated beam of radiant electromagnetic energy traveling in a second direction, which is the reverse of the first direction. A second collimating surface of the waveguide receives the substantially collimated beam of radiant electromagnetic energy and to redirect the substantially collimated beam toward the output surface. An optical backlight apparatus comprises a reflective cavity to receive the collimating waveguide and a diffuser located over the output surface of the collimating waveguide.

Collimating waveguide apparatus and method

A light guide apparatus includes a light guide layer further including light injection elements and respective light bypass elements disposed optically upstream of the light injection elements. The light injection elements and/or the bypass elements can take the form of injection facets (air prisms), surface diffraction elements, volume diffraction elements, and gradient index profiles. A light collection and concentration system comprises a single light guide apparatus, a light-transmitting medium layer disposed immediately adjacent the single light guide apparatus, and a primary light concentrator component disposed adjacent the light-transmitting medium layer, including a plurality of primary concentrator elements each of which is in optical registration with a respective one of the light injection elements of the single light guide apparatus.

Dimpled light collection and concentration system, components thereof, and methods

A light guide apparatus includes a light guide layer having a top surface and a bottom surface, and a transversely oriented side-end surface that forms an output aperture of the light guide, characterized by an index of refraction, n, and further characterized by a length dimension in an intended light propagation direction towards the output aperture, where the intended light propagation direction is a z-axis direction of a Cartesian coordinate system; and a plurality of light injection elements disposed in the form of at least one linear strip in at least one of the top and bottom surfaces of the light guide layer, wherein some of the plurality of light injection elements are disposed on one lateral side of the strip and some other of the plurality of light injection elements are disposed on an opposing lateral side of the strip, further wherein each light injection element is disposed outwardly at a rotation angle &#x394;z about the y-axis.

A light guide includes a light guide layer having a transversely oriented side-end surface that forms a primary output aperture (exit) for light traveling in a forward propagation direction out of the end surface of the light guide (for, e.g., CPV applications) and, which forms a primary input aperture (entrance) for light traveling in a rearward propagation direction into the end surface of the light guide (for, e.g., illuminator applications), and a first plurality of light injection elements stepped (staggered) in a forward light propagation direction in a first plane along lines parallel to the side-end surface or clocked (tilted) about a y-axis in a z-axis-light propagation direction in a respective first plane, wherein the light injection elements are disposed along parallel lines normal to the side-end surface. The light guide component may further comprise at least a second plurality of light injection elements stepped in at least second plane. A light guide system includes a component light guide, a lenslet array disposed adjacent a top surface of the light guide, and a light-transmitting, TIR medium layer disposed immediately adjacent at least one of the top and bottom surfaces of the light guide.

Growing community of inventors

Rochester, NY, United States of America

Blair L Unger