Award for headlamp study with OSRAM LEDs

Hella KGaA Hueck&Co has been presented with an innovation award at the Barcelona Motor Show for its prototype headlamp developed in cooperation with Volkswagen. The LED headlight is a study based on the VW Golf 5. It provides the functions of dipped beam, high beam, direction indicator and daytime running light, all with LEDs.

Plastic lenses in a honeycomb arrangement give the headlamp a distinctive appearance. Also special LEDs from OSRAM Opto Semiconductors provide perfect illumination. The dipped beam is produced by a shovel-shaped reflector and four of the seven honeycomb segments. The other three segments come into play for high beam. All seven segments are also used for the daytime running light, but in this case the LEDs are dimmed. Underneath the reflector there are six LEDs in a line. These are used as the direction indicator.

Hella is using specially developed groups of LEDs for the headlamps. Their high output comes among other things from the tried and tested thin-film technology developed by OSRAM. This technology produces "top-lookers" that emit almost all the light generated out of the top of the LED.
The white light color is produced by conversion, with the yellow converter located in the encapsulation material above the blue chip.

LEDs allow designers to create new shapes and arrangements for headlamps. Their modular design and wide variety of optics provide an excellent basis for entirely new styling. Apart from the design aspects, the long life of light emitting diodes is of enormous importance. Headlamps can now be produced that last as long as the vehicle itself.

The development of the white LED has led to a number of solutions that until recently would have been unthinkable. This prototype headlamp already achieves an output of around 1000 lumen, and therefore matches the performance of current xenon headlamps. In the USA, LED headlamps are already approved for use for main light functions in accordance with the SAE standards in force there. In Europe, or the region covered by the ECE regulations, approval is not expected until 2008.
Further development of the LEDs, their ever increasing performance and improved thermal management make mass produced products a distinct reality by then.


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