Conversion of solid state source output to virtual source
First Claim
1. A solid state light fixture, comprising:
- a solid state light emitting element, for emitting a point source output of light comprising humanly visible electromagnetic energy;
an optical output; and
an optical processing element coupled between the solid state light emitting element and the optical output, for receiving the point source output of light from the solid state light emitting element and converting the received light for output as a virtual source at the optical output.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A light fixture converts source light from one or more solid state light emitting elements to a virtual light source output. An optical element receives and diffuses light from the solid state emitters to form a processed light for the virtual source output. The optical element forms light that is relatively uniform, for example having a substantially Lambertian distribution and/or having a maximum-to-minimum intensity ratio of 2 to 1 or less over the optical area of the virtual source. In the examples, the diffuse optical processing element comprises a cavity having at least one diffusely reflective surface, and the emitting elements supply light into the cavity at locations that result in reflection and diffusion before emission through an aperture of the cavity. The aperture or a downstream processing element appears as the virtual source of the processed light from the cavity.
155 Citations
176 Claims
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1. A solid state light fixture, comprising:
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a solid state light emitting element, for emitting a point source output of light comprising humanly visible electromagnetic energy;
an optical output; and
an optical processing element coupled between the solid state light emitting element and the optical output, for receiving the point source output of light from the solid state light emitting element and converting the received light for output as a virtual source at the optical output. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. A solid state light fixture, comprising:
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a solid state light emitting element, for emitting a point source output of visible light; and
means for converting the point source output of light from the solid state light emitting element to a virtual source output of the solid state light fixture, wherein area of the virtual source is at least one order of magnitude larger than area of the point source output of light from the solid state light emitting element. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52)
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53. A solid state light source having a point source solid state light emitting element, the source being configured to produce a substantially uniform output of light from the solid state element at a virtual source output.
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54. A method of outputting light from a virtual source, using a solid state light emitting element, the method comprising:
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operating the solid state light emitting element to generate a point source of humanly visible light; and
converting the humanly visible light generated by the solid state light emitting element to a virtual source of light of an area at least one order of magnitude larger than an area of the point source. - View Dependent Claims (55, 56, 57, 58)
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59. A lighting system, comprising:
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a solid state light emitting element, for emitting visible light;
a diffuse optical processing element coupled to the solid state light emitting element, for converting a point source of the visible light from the solid state light emitting element to a virtual source of visible light; and
a controller responsive to an input for controlling an amount of visible light supplied to the diffuse optical processing element by the solid state light emitting element to control a characteristic of light emitted from the virtual source. - View Dependent Claims (60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75)
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76. The lighting system of claim 76, wherein the optical integrating cavity comprises:
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a dome having a reflective surface; and
a plate having a substantially flat reflective surface facing the reflective surface of the dome, coupled to the dome so as to form the optical integrating cavity between the reflective surfaces of the dome and plate, at least a portion of one of the reflective surfaces of the dome and plate being diffusely reflective. - View Dependent Claims (77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82)
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83. A solid state light fixture, comprising:
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a plurality of solid state light emitting elements, each solid state light emitting element for emitting a point source output of light;
an optical output; and
an optical processing element coupled between the solid state light emitting elements and the optical output, for receiving the point source outputs of light from the solid state light emitting elements and converting the received light to a combined virtual source for emission via the optical output. - View Dependent Claims (84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112)
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113. A solid state light fixture, comprising:
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a plurality of solid state light emitting elements, each solid state light emitting element for emitting a point source output of light; and
means for converting the point source outputs of light from the solid state light emitting elements to a combined virtual source for output from the solid state light fixture, wherein area of the virtual source is larger than combined area of outputs of light from the solid state light emitting elements. - View Dependent Claims (114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140)
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141. A solid state light source having a plurality of solid state light emitting elements, the source being configured to produce a substantially uniform output of light, from point sources of light generated by the solid state elements, at a virtual source output.
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142. A method of generating light from a virtual source, the method comprising:
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operating a plurality of solid state light emitting elements to generate respective point sources of light; and
converting the light generated by the solid state light emitting elements to a combined virtual source of light of humanly visible having an area substantially larger than point source areas of the light generated by the solid state light emitting elements. - View Dependent Claims (143, 144, 145, 146)
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147. A lighting system, comprising:
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a plurality of solid state light emitting elements, for emitting visible light;
a diffuse optical processing element coupled to the solid state light emitting elements, for converting point sources of the visible light from the solid state light emitting elements to a virtual source of visible light; and
a controller responsive to a user input for controlling amounts of visible light supplied to the optical processing element by the solid state light emitting elements to control a characteristic of light emitted from the virtual source. - View Dependent Claims (148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176)
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Specification