News: Optoelectronics
12 January 2024
KYOCERA SLD Laser unveils automotive headlight modules and FiberLight grille assembly
KYOCERA SLD Laser Inc (KSLD) of Goleta, near Santa Barbara, CA, USA — which is commercializing gallium nitride (GaN)-based laser light sources for automotive, mobility, specialty lighting and consumer applications — has unveiled Laser-based Automotive Headlight Modules and FiberLight Grille Assemblies, demonstrating them at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2024) in Las Vegas (9–12 January).
The LaserLight module-based automotive headlight assembly offers high-brightness white and infrared (IR) dual illumination for night vision and sensing for increased safety and visibility in automotive and mobility applications. The headlight assembly provides full features of low beam and high beam enabled by compact size modules with KSLD’s LaserLight SMD White/IR dual-emission devices. The white light illumination provides a high-brightness and long-range light beam with a sharp cutoff, high contrast and precise patterns with minimum glare to maximize visibility. The IR illumination improves the safety with increased detection of objects such as animals, pedestrians or other hazards that would be otherwise difficult if not impossible to see using conventional lighting in foggy or dark conditions. The LaserLight Headlight Modules can be arranged in a set of four per headlight, for example two modules for low beam and two modules for high beam. The ultra-compact LaserLight Modules have a slim profile with less than a 12.7mm lens height, enabling flexibility for designers to adjust the configurations such as horizontal 2x2, vertical 2x2, offset layouts, and other arrangements.
The FiberLight Grille assembly offers ultra-bright white light in a thin emissive fiber only possible with laser light, enabling vehicle manufacturers to offer a strong brand signature. Applications include interior or exterior lighting, front lighting, tail lighting, in white or blue. KSLD’s FiberLight demonstrator was on display at CES assembled into an automotive grille application. The FiberLight delivers white emissive fiber illumination with more than 10,000cd/m2 and is targeted for exterior and interior lighting applications such as grilles, logos, daytime running lights (DRLs) and ambient lights. The FiberLight is said to deliver 10 times the brightness of LED solutions, producing brilliant and efficient illumination from thin, low-cost fiber optics and a remote light source.
KSLD also demonstrated a LaserLight line generator, providing a high-brightness and sharp-edge line light with capability to generate a variety of light patterns including straight, ring, square or angled lines. Applications include road projection to illuminate the line lights on a roadway in the forward direction of the vehicle to increase the visibility of moving vehicles to surrounding vehicles, cyclists or pedestrians. The application is useful in a dark roadway where traffic lane lines are not visible or difficult to see.
KSLD has been shipping its white light emitting LaserLight device for automotive high-beam boost applications since 2019 and was winner of the 2021 Prism Award for Photonics Innovation, Transportation Category. Beyond lighting, KSLD has been working on a development of gallium nitride-based laser light sources and modules for applications like LiFi, sensing and 3D printing.
