Three Specific Design Issues Associated with Automotive Distributed Lighting Systems: Size, Efficiency, and Reliability

This paper looks at Distributed Lighting Systems (DLS) from a size, efficiency, and reliability point of view. A small DLS with high reliability should be the final product. This paper discusses the use of Liquid Crystal Light Valve modulators (LCLV), plastic optical fiber, and a focus-less optical system (FLO) for use in automotive DLSs. LCLVs modulate the lights on and off. The use of LCLVs helps to increase reliability. The use of FLOs helps to reduce the part count, and to increase efficiency. A reduced number of parts also helps to reduce the size. A single size large core plastic optical fiber helps to reduce size and to reduce the number of parts. High Intensity Discharge (HID) lamps are the current light sources of choice for these systems.