Stanley introduced during the SAE congress '87 a LED HMSL, for the first time in the world, which fully conformed to FMVSS 108, and which was ready to be installed on actual vehicles. In the following year, utilizing the accumulated technology through LED HMSL and the superiority of LED, we presented a paper on the development of LED rear combination lamp which has multi-function features, such as sequential turn signal, character and/or pattern displays in addition to conventional stop & tail function and which is thin in its shape and long life (maintenance free).
This year, we have successfully developed a LED rear combination lamp with a built-in optical proximity sensor function fully integrating all the accumulated design technology and application technology of optical semiconductors for automotive LED lighting through the above developments.
The LED rear combination lamp developed this time is equipped with the following features, whereas it naturally maintains the conventional stop & tail function: LEDs for stop & tail lamp are used in common as both light sources for lighting and for detection, and no extraneous body styling problem exists, because all the sensory parts are built in the rear combination lamp.
In this paper we wish to present configuration of the LED rear combination lamp with proximity sensor and operating principle of the sensor, as well as characteristics and performance of this detection system, and also the future trend and exploitation of application.