Stacking illumination of a confocal reflector light emitting diode automobile headlamp with an asymmetric triangular prism

A confocal reflector lamp with an asymmetric triangular prism was designed for a stacking illumination of a light emitting diode (LED) automobile headlamp fitting ECE R112 asymmetrical regulation. The optical system includes three 1st elliptic reflectors, three 2nd parabolic reflectors, and one asymmetric triangular prism. Three elliptic and parabolic reflectors were assembled with three confocal reflector modules; two modules projected the cut-off line of a 0 degrees angle, and the other module projected the cut-off line of a 15 degrees angle using of an asymmetric triangular prism. The ray tracing, optical simulation, and mockup experiment results exhibited that the illumination distribution met the regulation of ECE R112 class B, and the ideal efficiency could reach 96.8% in theory. The tolerance analysis showed the efficiency remained above 98% under the error values of +/- 0.2 mm of the position of the LED light source, and the y direction of the up-down movement was more sensitive than the x and z directions. The measurement results of the mockup sample safety factor were all larger than 1.15 and supported the regulation of the ECE R112 Class B. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America