The Advanced Automotive Lighting And Vision Systems Report

Automotive lighting technology has come a long way in the last 20 years as new technologies start to gain importance. High-intensity discharge (HID) headlamps - also known as xenon headlamps - were invented in early 1990s, challenging the dominance of halogen headlamps for the first time. Since then, automotive lighting has developed to solid-state technology in the form of light emitting diodes (LEDs), organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), and laser technology. Much of this progress can be attributed to the pace of scientific innovation in materials technology. For instance, the price of LEDs has decreased rapidly over the past three to five years, and this trend is expected to continue over the next couple of years until LED lights reach a true mass-adoption cost. Essential research on better materials is crucial to reach this price goal. However, beyond that, advances in materials will also broaden LED consumption through improved performance in brightness, lifetime (concerning brightness and colour maintenance), and colour homogeneity or colour rendering. Automotive headlights have been the last automotive application to transition to LEDs. High-power, high-luminance LEDs are now being designed into luxury and midrange vehicles, and new technologies and materials are expected to expand this to the high-volume entry-level vehicles sector in the next few years. The industry-wide move to solid-state light sources brings several obvious advantages, such as a significant reduction in energy use. Illumination has accounted for a significant proportion of energy use; a 50% reduction by 2025 over 2005 through solid-state light sources is a significant achievement. Within the automotive sector, solid-state light sources lead to an overall reduction in CO2 emissions, and a significantly longer working lifetime. Apart from the LED and OLED light sources that are being incorporated in vehicles today, new light sources in development include digital micromirror devices (DMD) and laser technology. Although reducing CO2 emissions is a key goal in today's automotive development, lighting has equally been a focus of intense development for reasons of product differentiation. Led by the European OEMs, there has been a revolution in optics and photonics that allows unique design elements. Signature shapes and designs for both rear and front lighting, including daytime running lights (DRLs), have become a feature for a wide range of OEMs.