C o v e r S t o r y AUTOMOTIV E LIGHTING

MODULAR DESIGN FOR LED

GLARE FREE HIGH BEAM
Headlamps and their lighting technology shall give a sense of safety but also have to face demands for high per-
formance, low energy consumption and a great styling potential. Until now, the functionality of safety and assis-
tance glare free high beam was only possible with xenon (HID) technology. In cooperation with Volkswagen,
Valeo developed a new headlamp for the VW Passat (B8) which now fulfils the requirements in LED technology.
It is built-up on a modular basis with use of two modules: one which integrates the glare free high beam func-
tion (multi-functional module) and an additional one (complementary module) for styling and performance.

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 A utho r s
CONSIDERABLE EVOLUTION Since introducing LED front lighting
systems, several technical solutions have
Over the last two decades, there has been been developed by lighting engineers to
considerable evolution in the field of exte- provide a similar functionality with all the
rior lighting for automobiles. After the benefits of LED technology [1]. This counts
first complex headlamp shapes which now also for the multi-functional module
made new stylings possible for the front from Valeo which has been chosen from
LAURENT EVRARD
is Director Research & Development
end of vehicles, the development of xenon among these solutions to equip the glare
at Valeo Lighting Systems in bulbs opened the door to highper- free high beam function on the recently
Bobigny (France). formance lamps in compact designs. They launched VW Passat (model year 2014, B8
were then followed by white LEDs which [2]). This solution is very close to the one

offered new headlamp solutions for high used up till now with xenon lamps, and
performance, low energy and a great styl- as a result, both the vehicle architecture
ing potential for each automobile brand. and the control parameters can remain
At the same time, multi-functional almost the same.
front cameras have appeared on vehicles,
BENOÎT REISS making it possible to detect the position
is Advanced Engineering Research
& Development Manager at Valeo
of other vehicles on the road, especially at HEADLAMP STYLING AND
Lighting Systems in Bobigny (France). night. Combined with adapted xenon E/E ARCHITECTURE
headlamps, this technology has led to the
development of the glare free high beam For the past two years, Volkswagen has
or Adaptive Driving Beam (ADB). The defined common styling elements in its
concept of glare free high beam allows to headlamp designs, in order to create a
drive on high beam without glaring other common signature for all the vehicles in
road users. Its first application of this the range. On the new VW Passat, this
DR JOACHIM RIPPERGER function came in 2010, in the market by has been translated into the following key
is Director German Customer Office, Valeo for the VW Phaeton. characteristics:
Research & Development at Valeo
Lighting Systems in Munich
Based on a compact xenon headlamp :: two lighting modules, with a lens
(Germany). module the ADB system provides five dif- appearance
ferent light functions: :: Day-time Running Lamps (DRL)
:: country light around each module for day time and
:: city light night time signatures
:: motorway light :: reduced height.
:: high beam In 1, the styling elements of the VW
:: glare free high beam with the same Passat headlamp are shown. Regarding
DAMIEN CABANNE visibility as the normal high beam for the sharing of functions between the two
is Research & Development the driver as a new ADB function. lighting modules, the exterior one (multi-
Manager for Southern Europe
Regional Operation at Valeo Lighting
This new glare free function has rapidly functional module) manages the main
Systems in Martos (Spain). became popular, as it really has part of the light beam and also includes
enhanced visibility at night drives signifi- the high beam, while the interior one has
cantly, while also improving the percep- the complementary role of spreading
tion of other drivers (less glare because light when on low beam. The global E/E
of the automation). architecture of such a headlamp for auto-
mobile technology is based on three
main elements:
:: on the camera, to detect and character-
ise the position of other vehicles in the
field of view
:: on the light control: this ECU which
interprets the data from the camera
sensors and other vehicle sensors (for
example speed, steering wheel angle,
inclination sensors etc.) and sends
orders to the headlamp control units
about which adequate light source
should be lit, and which position the
various motors should be in
1 LED headlamp with special styling elements for the VW Passat :: the headlamps (left and right).

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C o v e r S t o r y AUTOMOTIV E LIGHTING

Communication between these differ- beam) is in line with high range xenon driven by the light control unit which
ent elements is established through data performances, the total quantity of light is contains all the data and parameters,
buses, such as LIN or CAN depending on well below. linked to information from the camera
requirements, operating in both directions and other vehicle sensors.
in order to carry out diagnostics as well. As well as these three stepper motors,
COMPLEMENTARY MODULE FOR the system also contains one fan which
MORE LUMINOUS FLUX is necessary to cool down the LEDs
CHARACTERISTICS OF (35W) used on the multi-functional mod-
MULTIFUNCTIONAL MODULE That – along with the need to comply ule. All of them are located on the same
with styling requirements – is the reason compact heat sink and interconnected
The technical principles used for the why a complementary module has been through a combination of flat circuit
multi-functional module are close to these integrated in this headlamp. This module boards and flexible connections. The
solutions used on the xenon ADB systems is also 40 mm high and is designed to add compact fan has been specifically devel-
(for example in VW Passat 2010, Phaeton about 600 lm of luminous flux in the oped for automotive applications in order
2010 or Volvo XC60 2013). A projector beam pattern of each function. This addi- to take all the thermal, environmental
module, composed of several LEDs in a tional light is mostly “balanced spread and reliability constraints into account. It
multi-cavity elliptic reflector, is optically light” which enhances driver’s visibility has already been used on several head-
combined with a lens to project the light comfort and visibility conditions on nar- lamp applications.
onto the road. row roads.
Between the reflector and the lens,
there is a multi-position light shield (aper- BENEFITS FOR DRIVERS
ture) which can appear in different SYSTEM CONFIGURATION
shapes. These shield shapes are projected As for any glare free high beam system
onto the road by the lens. The different To ensure overall optimal light functions, like the LED headlamp presented here,
shapes are located on a rotating drum and to avoid any visible separation the primary benefit for the driver is the
which is activated by a stepper motor. On between the two modules, they must be possibility to drive on high beam with-
the headlamp module used on the VW aligned with a precision of ±0.1°. This out glaring other traffic participants.
Passat, for example, there are five differ- is the reason why they are mounted on This means, first of all, improved visibil-
ent shield shapes, corresponding to the the same bracket inside the headlamp, ity in all traffic conditions. For instance,
light shield’s five different positions. In 2 with an adjustment made during head- a recent study conducted by Darmstadt
the beam patterns of the five different lamp assembly. Technical University [3] showed that the
shield shapes are shown (glare free high Between the headlamp housing and use of glare free high beam improved
beam left and right counts as one). the main bracket, there is another stepper the detection distance for obstacles by
The headlamp module itself is motor, the third one in this headlamp 50 %, compared to a similar vehicle
mounted on a swivelling bracket, similar which is used for automatic levelling con- equipped with a xenon low beam. The
to the solution used for dynamic bending trol system (automatic adjustment on same study also showed that this signif-
light. A stepper motor is used to move beam pattern according to vehicle load icant increase in detection distance is
this bracket. With 300 steps over a range and its inclination, in order to optimise obtained without any increase in dis-
of ±15°, it is thereby possible to achieve the beam pattern position in every condi- comfort due to glare, for either the
a very high level of accuracy which makes tion to avoid glare for other drivers). Like equipped vehicle or other vehicles.
the dark gap between the detected vehicle the other stepper motors, this one is also
and the lighted area almost invisible for
the driver. By way of comparison, if a less
accurate system was used, for example
with a 1° resolution, the minimum gap
would be 2 m for a vehicle 100 m away,
or around 4 m for a vehicle 200 m away.
With this resolution, neither the oncom-
ing lane nor the sidewalk would be lit up
which would significantly reduce the
improvement in visibility compared to an
analogical system.
As regards photometric performance,
this module provides 315 lm luminous
flux for the low beam function and 950 lm
for the high beam function. Even if the
maximum illumination value (respectively 2 Beam patterns for the five different shield shapes respectively light functions
50 lx for low beam and 125 lx for high (glare free high beam left and right counts as one shape and function)

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 LED Xenon

tions which drivers are familiar with. A

less measurable advantage, but one
Country light

which is also very beneficial in terms of

driver comfort, is the “smoothness” of
the transitions between functions. This is
due to the combination of both the mod-
ule principle and the continuity offered
by the stepper motors and the different
system laws coming from the vehicle
itself, including filtering of information
from the camera.
City light

BENEFITS FOR OEMS

In order to propose vehicles combining

improved aerodynamics for better power
efficiency with enhanced styling, OEMs
are looking for increasingly compact light-
Motorway light

ing modules. This is presented here with

the multi-functional module which offers
various advanced lighting functionalities
within one single unit. In addition, the 40
mm height of the module (compared to
the more usual 60 mm on most products
with similar functionalities) leaves room
around it so that the DRL can be inte-
grated around it.
High beam

This means that the OEM’s brand

awareness is clearly visible and fully com-
patible with the headlamp design. The
module also offers the possibility of hav-
ing a bezel with a heat sink styling
directly mounted around it thus the over-
all design is enhanced, to provide a more
technical look. Another significant benefit
Glare free high beam

is the standardisation of the module

which can be used on different vehicle
platforms. It could be exactly the same
module (including DRL and style bezels),
or the same module with different exterior
elements (for example for vehicles with a
3 Illumination level comparison of the new LED system (left) to xenon system (right) completely different optical key differenti-
ators). In both cases, significant savings
can be made in terms of development,
The same type of effect is also visible more yellow and has a not so long range. since no new styling and no new module
with the motorway function: this is acti- Since the module is embedded on a validation are required.
vated when the speed exceeds 110 km/h. swivelling bracket, it also offers the possi- For most vehicles today, the head-
Here, the left limit of the beam is raised bility of having the dynamic bending light lamps come in several versions: usually a
from 70 to 120 m. This can be transferred functionality with each of the functions low range, and a high range with
to a difference which represents 1.5 s (country light, city light, high beam, improved styling and performance. In the
when driving at 120 km/h. 3 shows a motorway and glare free high beam). case of headlamps with the ADB function-
illumination level comparison of the new This means that all the best lighting ality, it is also common to have three ver-
LED system with a conventional xenon performances can be maintained on sions. For example, there is the base ver-
system. This is presented for the five dif- every type of road, 4. Such a solution sion first of all, with performances equiv-
ferent driving situations country light, city adds functionalities and enhances perfor- alent to halogen systems today which can
light, motorway light, high beam, and mance compared to previous systems, also use LED as an energy saving light
glare free high beam. The xenon light is without compromising the existing func- source. Then there is a mid-version with

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C o v e r S t o r y AUTOMOTIV E LIGHTING

DRL, brackets, style bezels, etc. would

remain the same.

CONCLUSION AND OUTLOOK

With this type of new multi-functional

module by Valeo, it is been demonstrated
in the new VW Passat that it is possible to
offer a differentiated appearance with a
sleek lens only 40 mm high, and at the
same time provide full high-performance
lighting with the Adaptive Driving Beam
(ADB) using the latest generation of LEDs.
Thanks to its concept of a rotating drum
activated by a stepper motor to create five
different beam patterns, the overall sys-
tem architecture is fully compatible with
what has previously been developed for
xenon bulbs. The development and inte-
gration into series production vehicle
applications is therefore easier and faster.
So one might imagine that such a mod-
ule could be deployed on several applica-
tions – with the same styling signature or
with slight updates. This sort of approach
to standardisation is key to providing
more technology at a reasonable cost,
while keeping a considerable degree of
flexibility in styling, and thereby giving
the designer considerable freedom.
For future evolutions of modular
approach for glare free high beam func-
tions, the engineers have several perspec-
tives in mind, such as power efficiency
improvement, size reduction for easier
integration, and new functionalities
thanks to new beam patterns.

REFERENCES
[1] Fleury, B.; Evrard, L.; Ravier, J.-P.; Reiss, B:
Expanded Functionality of Glare Free High Beam
Systems. In: ATZworldwide 114 (2012), No. 6, pp.
44-49
4 Projected beam patterns as road isolux lines [lx] on a colour scale for the five different light functions, [2] Burkert, A.: Der Passat B8 fährt sich besser
specifications in m bayerisch. In: http://www.springerprofessional.de/
der-passat-b8-faehrt-sich-besser-bayer-
isch/5393018.html of 22 October 2014
[3] Zydek, B.; Schiller, C.; Polin, D.; Khanh, T. Q.:
Evaluation of Headlamps with a Glare-free high
improved performances (like xenon level), the common low beam and high beam
Beam Function. In: ATZworldwide 116 (2014), No.
usually with enhanced styling (for exam- functions are usually similar. 6, pp. 46-51
ple with lens modules instead of having a In these cases, solutions are preferred
reflector). Between these two versions, a which avoid new tooling and an excessive
number of elements inside the lamp are development effort. This is possible with
changed, and that could entail a complete this type of modular approach described
new design with a new tooling set for the here: While the high version uses multi-
inner components. functional beam, the mid-version could
In general for the third high-value ver- use a bi-function module (low beam and
sion, the OEMs add only light functions high beam) only. All the other elements, Read this article on
such as the glare free high beam whereas such as complementary light module, www.autotechreview.com

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