Xenon Light for Main and Dipped Beam

Xenon (HID) technology is one of the mile-stones in developing process of car lighting. The first step was to combine this technology with free-form reflector technology. The result was a high performance dipped beam beam-pattern with three times more light output compared to a halogen system.

The next step of improvement is “Bi-Xenon”. It makes sense to use the enormous light output of a Xenon light source for two light functions (Main beam and dipped beam) in a single pocket headlamp system. This leads to new lighting performance and design freedom in headlamp technology.

In this paper the technological aspects of system realization will be described. New solutions in lighting strategy including modern actuators which handle optical elements to switch between two light functions had to be found.