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 April 29, 2003
Powerful LEDs used in new headlamp designs
San Jose, California - Automotive designers at Audi, Ford and leading styling studios are adding headlamps to the growing list of automotive lighting components powered by LEDs, reflecting technology advances that have made light-emitting diodes bright enough to be incorporated in headlights for the first time.
The new headlamps are being built with Luxeon LEDs from Lumileds Lighting, the world's brightest LED light source. Each Luxeon emitter delivers up to 60 times more light than conventional 5mm LEDs. Luxeon technology is making it possible to produce new headlight designs that not only capitalize on the small size of LEDs but also consume less energy than standard lamps, have no environmentally undesirable mercury, and do not need to be replaced for the life of the vehicle.
In recent auto shows, the Ford Model U and Audi Nuvolari concept vehicles, the latest Fioravanti concept car, and two custom-body productions from one- off designer Carrozzeria Castagna have featured headlamps utilizing Luxeon LEDs. Designs have ranged from the sharply angled front lighting on the Ford Model U and the slim horizontal headlamps on the Audi Nuvolari to the "insect eyes" on the Fioravanti Yak.
Luxeon-based forward lighting also is contributing to the radical look of the Viper-powered Dodge Tomahawk four-wheel concept motorcycle, a brawny 500- horsepower machine with extreme styling and engineering that have celebrities like Jay Leno waiting in line for production models. The Tomahawk's headlamp resides between the two front wheels in a striking double strip of lights formed by a series of single white Luxeon emitters, each fitted with a custom lens. The rear lighting system consists of an identical double strip of lights created with red Luxeon LEDs.
"LEDs are the only technology that combine the small footprint and low voltage required to execute the lighting design that Chrysler envisioned for the Tomahawk, but conventional LEDs are too weak to deliver the necessary light output," said Rob Miller, Senior Partner and Managing Director of Canton, Michigan-based BrightLights Technologies, which engineered the Tomahawk's forward and rear lighting systems in collaboration with RM Motorsports of Wixom, Michigan.
"Without Lumileds' Luxeon V product, which pumps out 120 lumens per emitter, the forward lighting system in the Tomahawk as you see it today would not have been possible," Miller said.
"LEDs have been used in automotive signal lighting applications for a number of years, but until recently it would have required too many emitters to produce sufficient illumination for forward lighting," said Jeff Raggio, Automotive Business Development Manager for Lumileds Lighting. "Our Luxeon technology makes LED-powered headlamps practical for the first time, and the presence of these headlamps in today's concept vehicles indicates that consumers will be driving cars with Luxeon headlights within a couple of years."
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