CN216896898U

CN216896898U - Automobile projection lamp based on super lens

Info

Publication number: CN216896898U
Application number: CN202220463132.8U
Authority: CN
Inventors: 朱瑞; 朱健; 郝成龙; 谭凤泽
Original assignee: Shenzhen Metalenx Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Shenzhen Metalenx Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-03-03
Filing date: 2022-03-03
Publication date: 2022-07-05
Anticipated expiration: 2032-03-03

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a superlens based automotive projection lamp comprising: an array light source or a single LED light source, the array light source is used for generating light rays comprising preset patterns and/or color characteristics; and the at least one super lens array is used for modulating the light from the array light source and forming an illumination area with the preset pattern and/or color characteristics at the target position. In a typical scheme, the method comprises the following steps of sequentially arranging in the direction of the light path: a collimating metalens array including collimating metalens cells; a projection superlens array including projection superlens units; by controlling the brightness and color of each light source unit in the array light source, a light signal with pattern characteristics can be formed and projected to a target position by the super lens array. By timely adjusting the array light source, the projection of images with variable shapes, colors and colors can be realized.

Description

Automobile projection lamp based on super lens

Technical Field

The application relates to the field of automobile lamps, in particular to an automobile projection lamp based on a super lens.

Background

The automobile projection lamp or the outer atmosphere lamp can be used for projecting various patterns, more and more automobile brands like to install the atmosphere lamp on the automobile body, various patterns can be projected on the ground around the automobile body, and the brand identification degree is improved; the vehicle can also play a certain role in illumination, illuminate the ground area in the surrounding environment of the vehicle, provide assistance for people leaving the vehicle, and have safety in severe weather.

The conventional automobile projection lamp is mostly based on a micro-lens array technology, and in the publication CN113625510A, the conventional automobile projection lamp includes an LED light source, a total reflection collimating lens, a focusing lens, a shading plane, a projection lens and an optical element. The imaging principle is to project the image corresponding to each small lens in the micro lens array on the same position of the ground. In the scheme, a single light source is collimated and forms a pattern through a shading sheet, so that the display of complex and dynamic graphs cannot be realized, the display of various colors cannot be realized, the structure is complex, and the robustness is poor; the whole product form among the prior art is cylindric usually, and length often exceeds 4cm, because of its volume, need carry out great door, chassis structural modification when installing additional on current vehicle, also inconvenient dismantlement, when installing additional to the chassis, can reduce the minimum ground clearance of vehicle, influence the passability of automobile body, also very easily damage.

SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL

To the defect among the prior art, this application first aspect provides an automobile projection lamp based on super lens for realize the effect of projection polychrome, developments and complicated figure, include:

an array light source comprising a plurality of light source units, the array light source for generating light comprising graphics and/or color features;

at least one superlens device for modulating light from the array light source and forming an illumination area with the pattern and/or color features at a target location;

wherein the superlens device is a superlens or an array formed by a plurality of superlenses; the super lens comprises a substrate and structural units arranged on the surface of the substrate in an array mode, wherein the structural units are composed of periodically arranged nano structures.

Preferably, the at least one superlens device comprises, arranged in sequence along the optical path direction:

the collimating super lens device comprises a collimating super lens or an array formed by the collimating super lens; and a projecting superlens device comprising a projecting superlens or an array thereof;

wherein the collimating metalens arrangement is configured based on a phase distribution of the nanostructures therein to: collimating the light from the corresponding light source unit and inputting the light to the corresponding projecting super lens device; and

wherein the projecting superlens apparatus is configured based on a phase distribution of the nanostructures therein to: an illumination area is formed based on the projection of light rays from the corresponding collimating metalens at the target location.

Preferably, the at least one superlens apparatus includes a double-sided superlens array including double-sided superlens units;

the double-side super-lens unit comprises a substrate which can penetrate through light rays in a target waveband, and different nano structures and structural units formed by the nano structures are arranged on the surfaces of the two sides of the substrate respectively;

wherein, the phase distribution of the nanostructure based on the side is configured as follows: collimating light from the light source unit;

wherein, the phase distribution of the nanostructure on one side of the double-sided superlens unit close to the target position is configured as follows: based on the collimated light, an illumination area is generated that is projected to a target location.

Preferably, the system further comprises a long-focus focusing superlens arranged between the at least one superlens device and the target position.

Preferably, the optical device further comprises a beam splitter or a deflector for splitting or deflecting the light output by the at least one superlens device.

Preferably, the beam splitter or deflector is a prism.

Preferably, one of the at least one superlens means is integrally formed with the prism.

Preferably, the beam splitter is a beam splitting superlens;

the deflecting device is a deflecting super lens.

Preferably, the light source unit includes a vertical cavity surface emitting laser.

Preferably, the light source unit is an LED.

The second aspect of the application provides another automobile projection lamp based on a super lens, which is easy to disassemble and assemble and does not influence the function of a vehicle body structure, and comprises a light source unit and at least one super lens device; the at least one super lens device is used for modulating light rays from the light source unit and forming an illumination area at a target position;

Preferably, said at least one superlens arrangement comprises a collimating superlens and a projecting superlens array;

the collimating metalens configured, based on a phase distribution of the nanostructures therein, to: collimating the light from the light source unit and inputting the collimated light to the projection super lens array;

the projection superlens array configured, based on a phase distribution of the nanostructures therein, to: and projecting the collimated light rays to a target position to form an illumination area.

Based on above technical scheme, the advantage and the effect that this application realized have at least:

by controlling the brightness and color of each light source unit in the array light source, a light signal with pattern characteristics can be formed and projected to a target position by the super lens array. By timely adjusting the array light source, the projection of images with variable shapes, colors and colors can be realized.

By adopting the super-surface lens, the whole parts are fewer, the extremely high assembly precision of the traditional optical element is not needed, and the whole robustness is better. The automobile gap groove can be directly attached to an automobile door or an automobile chassis, particularly can be installed in the existing gap groove, the original structure of the automobile is not damaged, and the influence on the trafficability characteristic of the automobile is small.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the disclosed structure and light path (multi-super lens array solution);

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the structure and optical path of the present disclosure (double-sided superlens array scheme);

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the structure and optical path of the present disclosure with the addition of a remote projection;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the structure and optical path of the present disclosure with the addition of beam splitting projection;

FIG. 5 is a layout of a structuring element;

FIG. 6 is a schematic of a nanostructure;

FIG. 7 is a schematic view of another structure and its optical path in the present disclosure.

1LED array, 2 superlens array; 11LED light source units; 21 collimating superlens array; 22 projecting a superlens array; 23 a double-sided superlens array; 24 long focal length focusing superlens; 25 collimating metalens; 3, a prism; 4 area to be illuminated.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the application.

Detailed Description

The present disclosure now will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which embodiments are shown. This disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art. Like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout. Also, in the drawings, the thickness, ratio and size of the components are exaggerated for clarity of illustration.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting. As used herein, "a," "an," "the," and "at least one" do not denote a limitation of quantity, but rather are intended to include both the singular and the plural, unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. For example, "a component" means the same as "at least one component" unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. "at least one of" should not be construed as limited to the quantity "one". "or" means "and/or". The term "and/or" includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms used herein, including technical and scientific terms, have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. Terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is the same as a meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

The meaning of "comprising" or "comprises" indicates a property, a quantity, a step, an operation, a component, a part, or a combination thereof, but does not exclude other properties, quantities, steps, operations, components, parts, or combinations thereof.

Embodiments are described herein with reference to cross-sectional views that are idealized embodiments. Thus, variations from the shapes of the illustrations as a result, for example, of manufacturing techniques and/or tolerances, are to be expected. Thus, embodiments described herein should not be construed as limited to the particular shapes of regions as illustrated herein but are to include deviations in shapes that result, for example, from manufacturing. For example, regions shown or described as flat may typically have rough and/or nonlinear features. Also, the acute angles shown may be rounded. Thus, the regions illustrated in the figures are schematic in nature and their shapes are not intended to illustrate the precise shape of a region and are not intended to limit the scope of the claims.

One of the technical ideas of the present disclosure is that the present disclosure replaces the microlens array and/or other optical lens groups in the prior art with a superlens or an array thereof in view of the characteristics of the microlens array that is high in cost, large in volume and weight, and requires high mounting accuracy. Its main features can be exemplarily represented by fig. 7:

as can be seen in FIG. 7, there is included an LED light source 11, a collimating metalens 25 (array) and a projecting metalens array 22. Wherein the collimating metalens minimizes light loss and uniformly projects light onto the projecting metalens array 22. And the illumination area is formed by projection by the projecting superlens array 22.

Compared with the prior art, the projection device in the figure 7 has a simple structure, better robustness and thinner overall thickness, can further reduce the volume by combining a wafer level packaging process, can be directly attached to a vehicle door or a vehicle chassis, particularly can be installed in the existing gap groove, does not damage the original structure of the vehicle, and has smaller influence on the trafficability of the vehicle. The embodiment is used for realizing illumination of monochromatic light, and can increase the light shielding part to realize projection of a specific pattern.

A second aspect of the present disclosure provides an embodiment, exemplarily shown in fig. 1, including:

an array light source 1 including a plurality of light source units, the array light source being configured to generate light including a predetermined pattern and/or color characteristics;

at least one superlens array 2 for modulating light from the array light source and forming an illumination area with the predetermined pattern and/or color characteristics at a target location.

Supplementary explanations for the above embodiments include:

the array light source 1 may optionally include LEDs of different colors, and may be arranged in a specific manner, for example, according to the way of an automobile brand logo. The adjustable LED array can also be selected, the required graph can be displayed according to the control of a program, the control unit is included, the control unit can be connected with a control module of the automobile according to actual requirements, and the user can operate and control which pattern is displayed.

The above-described superlens array 2 is composed of a plurality of superlens units. A superlens is a kind of supersurface. The super surface is a layer of sub-wavelength artificial nano-structure film, and incident light can be modulated according to super surface structure units on the super surface. The super-surface structure unit comprises a full-medium or plasma nano antenna, and the phase, amplitude, polarization and other characteristics of light can be directly adjusted and controlled. In this example, the nanostructure is an all-dielectric structural unit, and has high transmittance in a target wavelength band, and the selectable materials include: titanium oxide, silicon nitride, fused silica, aluminum oxide, gallium nitride, gallium phosphide, amorphous silicon, crystalline silicon, hydrogenated amorphous silicon, and the like. The nanostructures may be filled with air or other transparent or semitransparent material with other working wavelength bands, and it should be noted that the absolute value of the difference between the refractive index of the material and the refractive index of the nanostructures is greater than or equal to 0.5.

The plurality of superlens units, based on phase modulation of the nanostructures therein, are identically or differently configured. Similarly, the respective superlens arrays 2 are also configured identically or differently to achieve different functions. Illustratively, a superlens unit includes:

a substrate, and

the structural units are arrayed on the surface of the substrate and consist of periodically arranged nano structures.

As shown in fig. 6, the nano-structure may be a polarization dependent structure, such as a nano-fin and a nano-elliptic cylinder, which exerts a geometric phase on the incident light; the nanostructures may also be polarization-independent structures, such as nanocylinders and nanosquares, which impart a propagation phase to incident light. For example, when the projection lamp is applied to a scene requiring glare prevention to ensure driving safety, polarization-dependent structures such as nanofins and nano elliptic cylinders may be used.

For the structural unit, the structural unit is a regular hexagon, and each vertex and the central position of the regular hexagon are provided with at least one nano structure. Or the structural unit is a square, and at least one nano structure is arranged at each vertex and the center of the square. Ideally, the structural units should be hexagonally-arranged and centrally-arranged nanostructures or quadrate-arranged and centrally-arranged nanostructures, and it should be understood that the actual product may have the loss of nanostructures at the edge of the superlens due to the limitation of the superlens shape, so that the actual product does not satisfy the complete hexagon/quadrate. Specifically, as shown in fig. 5, the structural units are formed by regularly arranging nanostructures, and a plurality of structural units are arranged in an array to form a super-surface structure.

One embodiment, as shown in the left side of fig. 5, includes a central nanostructure surrounded by 6 peripheral nanostructures at equal distances, and the peripheral nanostructures are uniformly distributed on the circumference to form a regular hexagon, which can also be understood as a regular triangle formed by a plurality of nanostructures combined with each other.

One embodiment, shown in the right side of fig. 5, is a central nanostructure surrounded by 4 peripheral nanostructures equidistant from it, forming a square.

In this embodiment and the following other embodiments, various elements related to the super-surface, such as various super-lenses and various arrays, have optical phases satisfying at least the following formula based on the phase distribution of the surface nano-structures:

wherein r is the distance from the center of the superlens to the center of any of the nanostructures; lambda is the wavelength of operation and,

and x and y are the coordinates of the mirror surface of the super lens, and f is the focal length of the super lens. The phase of the superlens may be expressed by higher order polynomials, including even and odd polynomials. In the embodiment of the application, compared with formulas (1), (2), (3), (7) and (8), formulas (4), (5) and (6) can optimize not only the phase satisfying even polynomial, but also the phase satisfying odd polynomial without destroying the rotational symmetry of the phase of the superlens, and remarkably improves the optimization degree of freedom of the superlens. It should be noted that in formulas (1), (2), (3), (7) and (8), a1 is less than zero; and in equations (4), (5) and (6), a2 is less than zero.

In a preferred embodiment, as shown in fig. 1, the following are included in the light path direction:

a collimating metalens array 21 including collimating metalens units; and

a projection superlens array 22 including projection superlens units;

wherein the collimating metalens cell is configured based on a phase distribution of the nanostructures therein to: collimating the light from the corresponding light source unit and inputting the light to the corresponding projection super lens unit; and

wherein the projection superlens unit is configured to, based on a phase distribution of the nanostructures therein: an illumination area is formed based on the projection of light rays from the corresponding collimating metalens at the target location.

The collimating metalens array 21 and the projecting metalens array 22 may be formed in a wafer level package to ensure better alignment accuracy and prevent distortion of the image.

In a preferred embodiment, the light source array 1, the collimating and projecting

superlens arrays

21, 22 may be formed together in a wafer-level package.

In a preferred embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, the at least one superlens array comprises a double-sided superlens array 23, the double-sided superlens 23 array comprising double-sided superlens units;

the double-side super-lens unit comprises a substrate which can be penetrated by light rays in a target waveband, and two side surfaces of the substrate are respectively provided with different nano structures and structural units formed by the nano structures;

In a preferred embodiment, the light source array 1 and the double-sided superlens 23 may be formed in a wafer-level package.

The substrate of the double-sided superlens unit can be a flat transparent substrate, or can be a prism-shaped or angular substrate, so that the double functions can be realized, and additional functions such as refraction, beam splitting and the like can be realized.

In a preferred embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, a long focal length focusing superlens 24 is also included, disposed between the at least one superlens array and the target location. With the above-described automobile projection lamp, generally, the projection area is relatively large, and the luminance evenly distributed to each area is limited, and is generally used for illuminating the surroundings of the projected automobile. The embodiment provides a long-distance illumination automobile projection lamp comprising a super lens array, in particular to a focusing super lens with a long focal length, which is additionally arranged behind the super lens array. The focal distance is approximately equal to the distance from the location where the atmosphere lamp is positioned to the target area to be illuminated. The light emitted from the super lens array passes through the focusing super lens to reach a target area to be illuminated, each point of light spots on the target area is irradiated by light rays emitted by all points of the light source, and meanwhile, light beams emitted by all the light sources are overlapped to the same view field range on the illumination light spots to obtain one light spot.

Depending on the different requirements (angle of emergent light) on the illumination area, an optical element, such as a superlens array, a prism, or a pincushion lens, can be added after the superlens array to split or deflect the light. When the optical element design selects a superlens array, the superlens and the projection superlens can be combined and designed on a superlens array. Taking a wedge prism as an example, as shown in fig. 4, a schematic diagram of a prism scheme is used.

In a preferred embodiment, one of the at least one superlens array is integrally formed with the prism. That is, the prism is used as a base, and the super surface is directly etched or bonded to one surface of the prism by adhesion, bonding, or the like.

In a preferred embodiment, a single superlens is selected as the beam splitter or the deflector.

It should be understood that, in the various superlens arrays described above, each superlens unit therein may be a common substrate, that is, the supersurface unit in different areas is etched on the surface of the same substrate by using a process such as photolithography; or may be fabricated using different substrates and tiled to form an array.

In a preferred embodiment, the light source unit comprises a vertical cavity surface emitting laser, projecting the illumination area with a VCSEL array.

In the above-mentioned embodiment and its preferred embodiment, the projection lamp based on the super lens array has simple structure, lower cost, compact and compact design, can occupy smaller installation space, and has more options in installation position. Moreover, the projection lamp based on the super lens array can carry out multi-color projection, and different patterns and colors can be flexibly projected by controlling the colors of the lamps on the LED array.

The above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present application, and not to limit the same; although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that: the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments may still be modified, or some technical features may be equivalently replaced; and such modifications or substitutions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the corresponding technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention.

Claims

1. An automotive projection lamp based on a superlens, comprising:

the super lens device is a super lens or an array consisting of super lenses; the super lens comprises a substrate and structural units arranged on the surface of the substrate in an array mode, wherein the structural units are composed of periodically arranged nano structures.

2. The superlens-based automotive projection lamp of claim 1, wherein the at least one superlens device comprises, arranged in order along the optical path direction:

the collimating super lens device comprises a collimating super lens or an array formed by the collimating super lens; and

a projection superlens device comprising a projection superlens or an array thereof;

3. The superlens-based automotive projection lamp of claim 1, wherein the at least one superlens arrangement comprises a double-sided superlens array comprising double-sided superlens cells;

4. The superlens-based automotive projection lamp of claim 1, further comprising a long focal length focusing superlens disposed between the at least one superlens device and a target location.

5. The superlens-based automotive projection lamp of claim 1, further comprising a beam splitter or a deflector for splitting or deflecting light output by the at least one superlens device.

6. The superlens-based automotive projection lamp of claim 5, wherein the beam splitter or deflector is a prism.

7. The superlens-based automotive projection lamp of claim 6, wherein one of the at least one superlens apparatus is integrally formed with the prism.

8. The superlens-based automotive projection lamp of claim 5, wherein the beam splitter is a beam splitting superlens;

the deflecting device is a deflecting super lens.

9. The superlens-based automotive projection lamp of claim 1, wherein the light source unit includes a vertical cavity surface emitting laser.

10. The superlens-based automotive projection lamp of claim 1, wherein the light source unit is an LED.

11. A super-lens based automobile projection lamp is characterized by comprising a light source unit and at least one super-lens device; the at least one superlens device is used for modulating light rays from the light source unit and forming an illumination area at a target position;

12. The superlens-based automotive projection lamp of claim 11, wherein the at least one superlens device comprises a collimating superlens and a projecting superlens array;

the collimating metalens is configured, based on a phase distribution of the nanostructures therein, to: collimating the light from the light source unit and inputting the collimated light to the projection super lens array;