Ams Osram has launched a next generation of light projection technology for automotive front led lights

Ams Osram has developed a next generation of semi-dynamic light projection for automotive front lighting,making its Oslon Black Flat X the brightest vehicle front component on the market. 

Projected light is the latest technology of optical effect when a car can interact with the driver and passengers. Mini assemblies of LED chips and micro-lens can be embedded in wing mirror, door sills to project light patterns onto the road ahead while lighting effects such as "welcome light carpet" to passenger or "hello" to driver during its working range.

The surface-mountable components can be installed easily during the standard production process for auto makers.  The special QFN platform of the LEDs enables customers to achieve simple thermal management. Depending on the system, heat sinks can be significantly reduced in size or even eliminated altogether.

Projected light technology has to achieve extreme miniaturisation, so that the entire projection system can easily be adjusted in unused space, such as the underside of the wing mirrors or the door sills. It also need to provide a sharp, well focused rendering of a pattern, symbol, or graphic artifact such as a logo.

The micro-lens components are produced as wafer-level optics using popular technologies and equipment in the semiconductor industry. Individual lens features, each measured in fractions of a millimeter, can be handled individually to produce the pattern required in the application when light is projected through the array, forming an ellipse on the ‘image plane on a pavement or roadway.

Currently, the technology has only been capable of projecting static images on to the image plane. The latest development from Ams Osram enables semi-dynamic projected lighting. Here, a segmented micro-lens array works in combination with four collimators split by an optical separator, with four independently turnable LED light sources.