Stanley Electric Co., Ltd

Gc Corporation

Light Prescriptions Innovators, LLC

Masafumi Ohno

Ryotaro Owada

Norikatsu Myojin

Takashi Futami

Teruo Koike

Takuya Kushimoto

Takashi Ebisutani

Yasushi Yatsuda

Yasushi Kita

Takashi Sato

Satoshi Sakai

Mitsuo Yamada

Shinichi Kojima

Yoshihisa Iwamoto

Yasuo Toko

Pablo Benitez

Juan Carlos Minano

Susumu Nakamura

Shinya Omori

Yoshifumi Takao

Ruben Mohedano

Takako Minoda

Naoko Takenobu

Mitsuaki Takada

Yatsushi Yatsuda

Aiichi Kobayashi

To increase the light utilization efficiency when selective light irradiation is performed using a liquid crystal element (a liquid crystal device). A lamp unit including: a light source; a reflective polarizing plate disposed at a position where light from the light source is incident; a reflecting mirror configured to reflect a reflected light generated by the reflective polarizing plate and re-enters the reflected light to the reflective polarizing plate; a liquid crystal device disposed on the light emitting surface side of the reflective polarizing plate; a polarizing plate disposed on the light emitting surface side of the liquid crystal device; and a lens disposed on the light emitting surface side of the polarizing plate.

Lamp unit, vehicular lamp system

A vehicle lamp is provided, which is capable of changing the clearness of a contrast boundary line correspondingly to a traveling state or a traveling environment of a vehicle. The vehicle lamp is mounted in a vehicle and configured to form a prescribed light distribution pattern including a contrast boundary line, the vehicle lamp including: a sensor provided in the vehicle; and a clearness control unit configured to change clearness of the contrast boundary line correspondingly to a detection result of the sensor.

Vehicle lamp

To achieve a high-quality light distribution pattern in a lamp unit used in a vehicular lamp system that selectively irradiates the front of a vehicle. The unit includes a light source, an optical shutter device, and an optical system where the optical shutter device has a first liquid crystal device having first light modulation areas and a second liquid crystal device having second light modulating areas. The first light modulation areas are arranged with a gap at least in a first direction and the second light modulation areas are arranged with a gap at least in the first direction. The first liquid crystal device and the second liquid crystal device overlap with each other such that, in a plan view, the first light modulation areas and the second light modulation areas are arranged complementarily to each other without forming a gap between the two modulation areas.

A vehicle lamp includes a light source including a plurality of light emitting elements or light emitting surfaces, a projection lens that projects light emitted from the light source, and a light distribution adjusting element that adjusts light distribution of the light emitted from the light source, wherein the light distribution adjusting element has a plurality of prisms having different angles of inclined surfaces corresponding to a direction in which the plurality of light emitting elements or light emitting surfaces are arranged, and prism surfaces in which at least one or a plurality of flat surfaces are arranged.

A vehicle lighting fixture can control the light distribution with higher accuracy while suppressing the light intensity unevenness of the light distribution even with a plurality of light sources used. The vehicle lighting fixture can include: a plurality of LED elements arranged in a vertical direction and a lateral direction; a projector lens assembly including two projector lenses disposed in front of the plurality of LED elements and configured to project light emitted from the plurality of LED elements forward; and an image shifter disposed in an optical path from the plurality of LED elements to a position forward of the projector lenses. The image shifter can include a plurality of prisms configured to widen light source images of the plurality of LED elements in the vertical and lateral directions.

Vehicle lighting fixture

A vehicle lighting fixture is configured to form a predetermined light distribution pattern (for example, a high-beam (driving) light distribution pattern and a low-beam (passing) light distribution pattern) by superimposing N partial light distribution patterns wherein N is a natural number of 2 or more. The vehicle lighting fixture can include a light intensity changing unit configured to change a light intensity of at least one partial light distribution pattern out of the N partial light distribution patterns.

A vehicle lighting unit can be configured to include a thin light guide. The vehicle lighting unit can include a solid light guide having a first surface including an internal reflection portion and a light exiting portion that are formed as a single continued surface, a second surface opposite to the first surface, and a light incident surface through which light enters the light guide so that the light reaches and is internally reflected off the internal reflection portion of the first surface, then is internally reflected off the reflection portion of the second surface, and exits through the light exiting portion of the first surface. The reflection portion of the second surface can include a plurality of divided reflection regions, and the reflection regions can include at least one reflection region disposed at a reference position and at least one reflection region disposed at a position closer to the light exiting surface than the reference position.

Vehicle lighting unit

A vehicle lighting unit can include a solid light guide having a light exiting surface, a reflection surface opposite to the light exiting surface, and a light incident surface through which light enters the light guide so that the light reaches and is internally reflected off the light exiting surface, then is internally reflected off the reflection surface, and exits through the light exiting surface. An LED light source can be disposed to face towards the light incident surface. The reflection surface can include a plurality of divided reflection regions, and the reflection regions can include at least one reflection region disposed at a reference position and at least one reflection region disposed at a position closer to the light exiting surface than the reference position.

A lighting fixture can include a light source, and a lens body including an incident face through which light emitted from the light source enters the lens body, an exit face, and a reflecting face configured to reflect light which has entered the lens body from the incident face such that the reflected light is emitted from the exit face to form a predetermined light distribution pattern having a boundary line between light and dark. The reflecting face can include a first reflecting region configured to reflect light with a reference wavelength which has entered the incident face perpendicularly with respect to the incident face. A second reflecting region can be configured to reflect light with a wavelength longer than the reference wavelength. A third reflecting region can be configured to reflect light with a wavelength shorter than the reference wavelength.

Lighting fixture

A vehicle headlight can include a semiconductor light source and a heat sink to radiate heat developed from the light source. The headlight can include a mounting base board mounting the light source and attached on a radiating base plate of the heat sink. At least one of a bottom surface of the mounting base board and the radiating base plate can include a concave portion in which a depth thereof is deeper than a maximum particle size of an inclusion of a thermal conductive viscous material that spreads in the concave portion. The light source can be located at a prescribed position in an accurate fashion without a positional misalignment while the heat developed from the light source can efficiently radiate via the heat sink. Thus, the disclosed subject matter can provide headlights including a radiation structure having a high radiating performance and positional accuracy for the light source.

Vehicle headlight

The disclosed subject matter includes a projector headlight using a plurality of optical units for a low beam with a high visible/visual quality. Each of the optical units can include a plurality of LED devices and a projector lens. The projector lens can include a light-emitting surface including a reflex function and a reflex surface including a light incoming surface that is located on the opposite side of the light-emitting surface. The LED devices can be located adjacent the light incoming surface, and the optical units can be located so that angles between optical axes of adjacent optical units can be identical. Thus, the projector headlight can form various favorable light distribution patterns by changing curvature factors of the light-emitting surface and the reflex surface of the projector lens in each of the optical units and by changing the angles between the optical axes of the adjacent optical units.

A vehicle light can include a light emitting diode (LED) serving as a light source and an optical system for controlling a light distribution pattern of the light beams from the LED light source utilizing a light guide (such as a lens body having an inner reflecting surface). The vehicle light can project illumination light with a low beam light distribution pattern. The vehicle light can include an LED light source and a lens body serving as a light guide. The lens body can include a light incident surface, a reflecting surface, and a light exiting surface. The LED light source can have a rearmost end light emitting point from which light beams are emitted to form a bright-dark boundary line. Among the light beams, perpendicularly incident light beams not subjected to refraction can be projected toward the bright-dark boundary line while obliquely incident light beams that are subjected to refraction can be corrected to be directed in a lower angular direction than the bright-dark boundary line and to be mixed with the other light beams, thereby preventing color shading of illumination light from the vehicle light.

Vehicle light

A vehicle lighting unit which emits light parallel to an optical axis in a front direction can include a light source which emits light obliquely to an optical axis in the front direction and a light guiding body which guides the light emitted from the light source so as to emit the light. The light guiding body can include an incidence surface disposed to face the light source with a gap in between, the incidence surface through which the light emitted from the light source enters the light guiding body, a front surface having an exit surface and a first reflection surface, and a back surface having a second reflection surface.

Vehicle lightening unit

A vehicle light having a plurality of optical units utilizing a semiconductor light emitting device as a light source can effectively prevent or suppress illuminance unevenness. One example of such a vehicle light can be a vehicle headlamp that includes four optical units each having a semiconductor light emitting device as a light source. The optical units can be arranged in line in the vehicle width direction so as to prevent the luminance unevenness, which can otherwise be generated due to a gap between optical units disposed in a vertical two-stage arrangement.

A vehicle light can include a matrix type semiconductor light source, an imaging lens and a reflector. The light source can project an enlarged matrix light on the reflector via the imaging lens. The reflector can include a matrix reflex surface having horizontal curvatures. Each of the horizontal curvatures of the reflex surfaces arranged in columns can be configured such that the corresponding column light is extended gradually in a wider range as the corresponding column light approaches from a central column light toward both edge column lights. Accordingly, a magnification of light projected from the reflector can become gradually large as approaching from the central column toward both edge columns. Thus, the disclosed subject matter can provide vehicle headlights that can form favorable light distribution patterns for a low beam and a high beam having a bright central portion in a wide range of a smooth light distribution pattern.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Masafumi Ohno