Design and Application of Liquid Silicone Rubber Light Guide in Compact Automotive Headlamps

Abstract

Traditional car headlights use halogen or high-intensity discharge (HID) lamps paired with a reflector cup, fisheye lens, and shading plate to comply with ECE112B (Headlamps with an Asymmetrical Passing Beam) regulations. This design has issues such as large and bulky volumes, and it sacrifices optical efficiency due to the shading plate. This paper proposes a solution using an LED light source coupled with a Liquid Silicone Rubber-Light Guide (LSR-LG) for compact automotive low-beam headlights. By employing the principle of total internal reflection, the light beam is confined within the LSR-LG to reduce the volume of the car lamp. Simultaneously, optimized the structure and adjusted the light distribution. In the prototype measurements, the LED combined with the LSR-LG in the compact automotive headlamps module exhibited light intensities of 11,942 cd, 12,898 cd, and 298.2 cd at measurement points 75 R, 50 R, and BR, respectively, by ECE R112B standards. Simultaneously, the design effectively reduced the car lamp module’s volume to 90.63 mm × 164.53 mm × 73.37 mm. This design offers advantages such as energy efficiency, lightweight construction, and compact size. It also complies with ECE R112B regulations, showing promising potential as an excellent choice for the next generation of automotive low-beam headlights.