RAIN SENSOR

• US 20110242540A1
• Filed: 02/17/2011
• Published: 10/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: E-Pin Optical Industry Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: E-Pin Optical Industry Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: SHIH, Bo-Yuan, SHYU, San-Woei, KUO, Ming-Che
• Application Number:
  US13/029,819
• Publication Number:
  US 20110242540A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 356/445
• CPC Class Codes: B60S 1/0837 with a particular arrangement of the optical elements
• CPC Class Codes: B60S 1/0881 characterized by the attachment means on the windshield
• CPC Class Codes: B60S 1/0888 characterized by the attachment of the elements in a unit
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/55 Specular reflectivity

Abstract

A rain sensor mounted on a windshield of a vehicle comprises: a housing having an opening, at least an emitter disposed in the housing and used for emitting light beams, a coupler, and an optical detector. The coupler connecting and covering the opening of the housing, comprises: at least a collimator receiving and collimating the light beams into collimated light beams; and at least a groove having a deflection surface to reflect the collimated light beams that passes through the collimator and is incident to the deflection surface at an incident angle θ to the windshield. The optical detector disposed in the housing is used for receiving the collimated light beams reflected by the windshield and generating electrical signals. The present invention characterized in that the incident angle θ satisfies the following condition: 1.27<n*sin θ<1.52, wherein n is refractive index of the coupler.

Claims

1. A rain sensor mounted on a windshield of a vehicle, comprising:

a housing having an opening;

at least an emitter disposed in the housing and being used to emit light beams;

a coupler connecting with the housing and covering the opening of the housing, comprising;

at least a collimator corresponding to the emitter to completely receive the light beams emitted from the emitter and to collimate the light beams into collimated light beams; and

at least a groove having a deflection surface corresponding to the collimator, and being used to reflect the collimated light beams that passes through the collimator and is incident to the deflection surface at an incident angle θ

to the windshield, and

an optical detector disposed in the housing and being used to receive the collimated light beams reflected by the windshield and to generate electrical signals in response to the collimated light beams;

characterized in that the collimated light beams incident to the coupler satisfies the following condition;

1.27<

n*sin θ

<

1.52

wherein n is refractive index of the coupler, and θ

is the incident angle of the collimated light beams incident to the deflection surface.

2. The rain sensor as claimed in claim 1, wherein the coupler is made of a transparent material of the refractive index n between 1.50 and 1.60.

3. The rain sensor as claimed in claim 1, wherein the incident angle θ

is between 60° and

70°

.

4. The rain sensor as claimed in claim 1, wherein the coupler made of a transparent material of the refractive index n is 1.585, and the incident angle of θ

is 65°

.

5. The rain sensor as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least three emitters are arranged in a loop at equal distance from the optical detector.

6. The rain sensor as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least two emitters are arranged at unequal distance from the optical detector.

7. The rain sensor as claimed in claim 1, wherein the coupler further comprises at least a focuser for focusing the collimated light beams reflected by the windshield to the optical detector.

8. The rain sensor as claimed in claim 7, wherein the coupler has a surface facing the optical detector, a concave part is formed in the central area of the surface, and the focuser is disposed on the concave part so that the focuser doesn'"'"'t protrude from the surface of the coupler.

9. The rain sensor as claimed in claim 1, wherein the emitter is a LED emitting light along its central axis, and the collimator corresponds to the central axis of the LED.

10. The rain sensor as claimed in claim 1, wherein the groove is falling down from a surface of the coupler toward the windshield, and the air can enter the groove so that the deflection surface is an interface between the air and the coupler and can totally reflect the collimated light beams to the windshield.