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Automotive lamps for headlights are constantly reevaluated for causes of glare issues. Lead wires, glass, sockets and even filaments reflect and/or scatter the light from the filament into undesired directions, possibly causing glare. The best way to account for scattered light in the design process is to measure the near field radiation pattern. A high-resolution camera on a goniometer is used to characterize the headlamp. The results are further analyzed in an optical ray-tracing package. This paper will look at the new double filament lamp (H13) in respect to glare as well as the effect of “cool blue” absorption coatings. Measurements of the emission patterns of the lamps with and without coating are compared. A ray-tracing model will simulate the effect of the coating and amplify the effect to determine how much increase in scattering is necessary to cause a glare problem. The goal is to show that the measured effect of absorption coatings on lamps is too small to cause glare.

A cooperation of several research partners supported by the German Federal Ministry of Research and Education proposes a new active matrix LED light source. A multi pixel flip chip LED array is directly mounted to an active driver IC. A total of 1024 pixel can be individually addressed through a serial data bus. Several of these units are integrated in a prototype headlamp to enable advanced light distribution patterns in an evaluation vehicle.

Glare-free high beams are a consistent enhancement of adaptive headlight systems for vehicles with advanced driver assist systems. A prerequisite for these are camera-based systems with the ability to recognize and classify objects such as vehicles in front or oncoming vehicles when driving at night. These objects can then be dynamically masked out of the high beam of the specially designed headlights. Since we are talking about moving objects, it is essential for the high beam to be continuously and dynamically adapted. This paper describes a modular LED matrix system for dynamically adjusting a glare-free and continuously active high beam. The main focus was on the modularity of the system and the optimization of the thermal properties of an LED matrix in order to ensure that operation was reliable under the harsh environmental conditions inside a headlight. Specific control electronics and different interconnection methods were examined.