Masked double-sided optical sheet lighting assembly

Abstract

Disclosed herein are vehicle lamp assemblies comprising a double-sided optical sheet with a mask printed directly onto the optical sheet. The optical sheet comprises a light-homogenizing sheet disposed over a plurality of light-emitting diodes. Instead of placing the mask over the optical sheet on a structure, the light-homogenizing sheet itself serves as a substrate during a printing process such that the mask is printed directly onto the optical sheet. The optical sheet supports the weight of the mask. The mask itself may be opaque with cutouts such that light escapes through the cutouts; the cutouts may be designed to create any number of custom patterns as desired. Other types of masks, such as translucent masks, may also be printed on the other side of the optical sheet to protect portions of the lighting assembly or to otherwise further adjust the lighting character of the vehicle lamp.