The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 03, 1999
Filed:
Feb. 25, 1997
Douglas F Kreysar, West Bloomfield, MI (US);
Ben Wang, Farmington, MI (US);
David R Jenkins, Chicago, IL (US);
North American Lighting, Inc., Farmington Hills, MI (US);
Abstract
A headlamp for a vehicle includes a holder for a light-distribution optical fiber of the type that has an output end emanating light of known spatial-intensity distribution, an optical coupler that has an input end adjacent the holder and includes a plurality of elements, each of which is positioned to receive light from a selected area of the light of known spatial intensity distribution and to alter the intensity or spatial distribution of that light to provide a predetermined spatial intensity distribution at an output of said coupler, and a projection lens to project the predetermined spatial intensity distribution to a desired illumination pattern. The optical coupler may be in the form of a mask and one or more filters or may be a number of light-transmitting elements that carry light from one spatial part of the input to a different spatial part in the output. In general, the optical coupler alters the intensity or angular distribution of the light pattern at the input to produce a desired light pattern at the output for projection onto the road by the projection lens.