SAE TECHNICAL

PAPER SERIES 980008

A New Concept of Headlight: Light

Guide Headlamp
Alban L’Herminé
Valeo Lighting Systems

Reprinted From: Automotive Lighting Technology

(SP-1323)

International Congress and Exposition

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 980008

A New Concept of Headlight: Light Guide Headlamp

Alban L’Herminé
Valeo Lighting Systems

Copyright © 1998 Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc.

ABSTRACT As an example, low profile headlamps required by car

manufacturers cannot be designed with traditional con-
A new headlamp concept is under development which cept without drastic and so far unacceptable photometri-
brings innovation and style flexibility to automotive light- cal losses.
ing in addition to savings in overall volume.
This first low profile headlamp (45 mm useful height)
Thanks to this technology named « Baroptic » (from the uses a light guide concept compatible with halogen or
European Research Program « Eureka »), the low beam High intensity discharge lamps to give a high quality
function has been reduced to a light pipe 45 mm high, beam distribution.
100 mm deep and 190 mm long. This volume is consider-
ably reduced compared to a traditional low beam unit.
The «Baroptic» can be positioned vertically, horizontally
or inclined, depending on styling preference.
The flux emitted by the light source (halogen or HID) is
not reflected on the surface of the reflector (as with a
Complex Shape or parabolic reflector) nor projected
directly on the road (such as with sealed beam or ellipti-
cal projector). It is transmitted by a light pipe and then
projected through lenses which are positioned along the
pipe. These lenses in combination with shields, define
the characteristics of the beam, including width, length,
Figure 1. Useful aperture comparison
distribution, cut off and homogeneity.
The results achieved, with either a European or American This new concept brings a new shape appearance both
beam match 70 mm height headlamps ( from traditional lit and unlit, and offers the opportunity to be located in dif-
concepts). If the flux given by the comparable models are ferent positions (slanted, horizontal...) in the vehicle.
identical (300 lm minimum), the new technology opti-
mizes the distribution of the emitted light. LIGHT GUIDE CONCEPT

INTRODUCTION GENERAL – Traditional reflector concepts use parabolic

shape reflectors for collection and projection. Then a lens
Generally, headlamps are considered as a styling aspect spreads the light in front of it.
of the vehicle. Car manufacturers’ stylists continuously
In Elliptical headlamps, collection is done by an elliptical
look for innovation and differentiation.
reflector and projection is done by the lens.
Simultaneously, headlamp volume constraint and acces-
The light guide concept such as an optical fiber system
sibility are becoming all the more important as size
separates collection and projection. Light is first collected
reduction is required.
and injected in the light guide. After transport, it is then
Those requirements have to be added to headlamp main projected on the road from the light guide output. One
lighting functions which impact on safety and comfort for major critical issue is that fiber bundle flux coupling effi-
the driver. ciency is low and not compatible with halogen lamp use.
Therefore, the research associated with to headlamp
design leads to develop technologies that optimize the
balance between style, volume and of course lighting
performance.

1
 Refraction plus total reflection can be used for intermedi-
ate angles.
Bulb+

reflector axis

Light Guide

Figure 2. Global overview

Figure 4. Refraction+Total reflection on guide interface
The «Baroptic» concept can be described as follow :
Refraction plus reflection on coating can be used for
Light is collected and coupled into the light guide. The
large angles.
function is performed by a small elliptical mirror.
Light is then guided through large (relative to fiber) light Bulb+
pipe and delivered at different outputs which can be con- reflector axis
sidered as secondary sources.
Finally light delivered by each sub output is projected on Light Guide
the road through lenses.

LIGHT COUPLING – Derived elliptical shape reflector

optimizes flux coupling from the light source into the light
guide.
The hot spot (or high radiance levels) have to be main-
tained for long range performance.
Figure 5. Refraction + Reflection on coating
TOTAL REFLECTION IN LIGHT GUIDE – The light guide
is fabricated from a high transmission quality optical
The higher the angle, the lower is the coupling efficiency.
material. It’s refractive index of around 1.5 makes that
rays injected in the guide and arriving on the guide border
LIGHT PROJECTION AND BEAM DISTRIBUTION –
with an angle over 42 degree reflect totally on it.
The light provided by each guide output is projected
Light is guided thanks to total reflection in the guide thanks to lenses or a mirror.
which means minimum loss of light transport.
Different kinds of refractive elements can be used.
The light guide behaves as a device which averages radi-
• Thick lenses .
ance and increases uniformity.
• Fresnel lenses ( linearized or not )
The guide basic material is glass but, in some cases, can
• Reflectors are derived from parabolic reflectors.
be plastic.
Optical quality has to meet two main requirements
LIGHT GUIDE INPUT OR OUTPUT OPTICAL
1. Give a maximum intensity for the hot spot.
INTERFACE – Three kinds of guide interfaces can be
considered, depending on deviation angle from the guide 2. Shield imaging with a high contrast quality (glare and
direction to input or output hot spot close to each other )

Simple refraction on material interface can be used for BEAM DISTRIBUTION – Beam distribution is given by
small angles. the superposition of each lens projection.
Beam Light Guide

Bulb+

reflector axis

Figure 3. Simple refraction guide interface

2
 MATERIALS & TEMPERATURE – The light guide con-
cept headlamp implies high radiance levels in the guide.
High radiance implies high temperatures.
In the case of H7 lamp use it is necessary to have glass
for the light guide.
Molded glass doesn’t fulfill our high geometric accuracy
requirements. This is due to its high viscosity.
Figure 6. Beam distribution
For this reason we use « float » glass for the guide.
DESIGN
High temperature resistant plastics are also necessary
for Fresnel lenses in spite of their lower transmission.
FRESNEL LENSES – Fresnel lenses are often used in
the automotive industry, but mostly in rear lamps. The Integrated sources such as halogen bulbs glued in
main constraint in low beam headlamp functions is to be dichroïc reflectors will have a good impact on tempera-
compatible with glare specifications. ture reduction on Fresnel lenses. In addition their
reduced volume will be an interesting advantage. Those
Traditional Fresnel lenses are designed with a revolution
sources are under development for automotive applica-
axis.
tions
For this reason we have developed a software dedicated
For HID configurations thermal constraints are com-
to calculate the shape of high quality Fresnel lenses, no
pletely different. Indeed arc lamps do not have the huge
longer axis symmetric, but which can be tilted. Those
infra red emission ratio like halogen lamp ( close to black-
tilted Fresnel lenses have a promising future in this con-
body emission ).
cept.
FLEXIBILITY
SIMULATION – Multi-reflection which occurs in the light
guide makes it difficult to have a first order evaluation of
CONFIGURATION FLEXIBILITY – The increased num-
the photometrical quality.
ber of elements brings more styling flexibility.
Multi-reflection requires simulations. But one shall
The light guide function is to bring light from the source to
choose a non sequential ray-tracing as many reflections
a remote position, before projection. This remote position
occur in the guide.
can be horizontal or vertical.
In addition the software has to be compatible with com-
This flexibility can be used to find the best fit with modern
plex shape design.
vehicle aerodynamic lines.
The impact is that such software is all the more time con-
Light guide orientation
suming as the complexity of the system increases. For
this reason step by step simulations are used in the opti- Front
cal design phases.
On one hand simulations are used to quantify the averag-
ing effect on max intensity due to multi réflexion. This Side
point is a driving parameter in order to organize the beam Figure 8. Horizontal configuration (Top view)
with a good max intensity. On the other hand it indicates
the lens minimum dimension in order to collect all the
Side
power emitted from the guide ouputs.
Modification of in house traditional headlamp design soft-
ware has been done in order to fit with this need. Com-
mercial software is becoming more and more efficient
and likely to meet those new requirements in the future.

Front
Figure 9. Horizontal slanted configuration (Top view)

Lamps can be either halogen or HID.

The high flux and radiance given by HID lamps allows to
reach an additional step in headlamp challenged design.
Figure 7. Non sequential ray tracing simulation

3
 Front Other variations can also depend on the geometry of the
emission area that can be rectangular or following irregu-
lar patterns.
In the validation plan, the horizontal and 30° slanted con-
figuration has been considered as the first stage. It corre-
sponds to one of the most used standard configuration.

RESULTS
Top
STYLE – Different prototypes have already been evalu-
ated and the ratio length to width is very much welcomed
Figure 10. Vertical configuration ( Side view) by designers and also by the common driver who never
saw such emission geometry during the night... and such
appearance during the day.

Figure 11. Modified lamp position (Top view)

The light source can be on the guide axis, or on an angle.
Unlike traditional concepts, lamp access can be done
from the top. This allows a depth reduction.
Figure 13. Concept car using technical aspects
Vehicle Stylists have decided, in the case shown on Fig-
ure 4, to emphasize High Tech style and differentiation
instead of volume and low profile.

Figure 12. Lamp replacement.

Figure 14. Vertical configuration
BEAM DISTRIBUTION FLEXIBILITY – Light distribution
depends on the way the different lens projections are
organized. This includes the amount of light, position and
size.
Global distribution and balance between maximum inten-
sity and beam width can be adjusted through each image
pattern and position.
For example vertical translation of the reflector in front of
the guides changes priority between hot spot and beam
Figure 15. Horizontal configuration.
width.
Other different styles can be considered regarding lens
STYLE FLEXIBILITY – Associated to the light guide con-
design required.
figuration, the style can be modified in a wide range, giv-
ing different night signature.
Fresnel lenses or thick lenses also give lot of styling free-
dom.

4
PERFORMANCE INSTALLATION – Depending on car manufacturer con-
straints, priorities can be modified.

Performance table The following examples can be given.

Lamp Flux lm Max I Lux

Thickness reduction: Removing lamps by the top allows
us to benefit from the 100 mm depth. Without spare room
H7 310 30
for removal, this can be of high interest when short front
HID 900 70 overhang is required (Van or small town car.)
Vertical configuration: when installation it along the
HID raw data correspond to measurements done on the fender.
same configuration after changing H7 bulb to HID lamp.
These large photometrical margins increase flexibility on
CONCLUSION
other parameters.
The availability of such a new concept in the styling tool-
box, will bring innovation for the next generation of cars.
And further investigations on the concept enable to us to
consider:
• Compact lighting systems with both functions (low
and high beam) generated by only one HID lamp.
• Capacity for intelligent lighting bringing additional
functions like beams adapted to curves.

Figure 16. Isolux measured on prototype