Optical arrangement with stepped lens

• US 7,483,220 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2004
• Issued: 01/27/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Auer Lighting GmbH (Saratoga Lighting Holdings LLC)
• Original Assignee: Auer Lighting GmbH (Saratoga Lighting Holdings LLC)
• Inventors: Wagener, Harry, Kittelmann, Ruediger
• Primary Examiner(s): Spector; David N
• Application Number:
  US10/584,023
• Publication Number:
  US 20070279911A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,497 Days
• Field of Search: 359/707, 359/741, 359/742, 359/743, 359/799, 362/326, 362/335, 362/336, 362/337, 362/339, 362/340, 362/355
• US Class Current: 359/742
• CPC Class Codes: F21L 4/005 the device being a pocket lamp F21L4/022, F21L4/045, F21L4/085 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: F21L 4/045 Pocket lamps
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 14/02 by movement of light sources in vehicle head lamps F21S41/657
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 14/06 by movement of refractors in vehicle head lamps F21S41/635
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 3/04 characterised by materials, surface treatments or coatings
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 5/045 the lens having discontinuous faces, e.g. Fresnel lenses
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 7/0008 providing for indirect lighting
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 7/24 characterised by the material
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 7/28 characterised by coatings
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 9/08 for producing coloured light, e.g. monochromatic; for reducing intensity of light with provision for controlling the colour F21V9/40
• CPC Class Codes: F21W 2131/20 Lighting for medical use
• CPC Class Codes: F21W 2131/406 for theatres, stages or film studios
• CPC Class Codes: F21Y 2115/10 Light-emitting diodes [LED]
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 3/08 with discontinuous faces, e.g. Fresnel lens diffractive Fresnel lenses G02B5/1876

Abstract

The invention comprises an optical arrangement for illumination purposes, in particular for a stepped lens spotlight, comprising a stepped lens with a light-diffusing element, in particular a diffusing screen, in which the diffusing screen is arranged in a first region and the stepped lens is arranged in a second region, and in which, with the change in the shape of the light impinging on the optical arrangement and/or the size of the light illuminating the optical arrangement, it is possible to set the aperture angle of the light emerging from the optical arrangement, in particular between two limit values, a smaller α_Sp and a larger α_F1.

Claims

1. A stepped lens spotlight, comprising:

a lamp;

a reflector; and

a stepped lens with a diffusing screen, the diffusing screen being arranged in a first region and the stepped lens is arranged in a second region, wherein the first and second regions occupy concentrically arranged surfaces having different diameters, and

wherein an aperture angle of the light emerging from the stepped spotlight is settable between a flood position and a spot position, and wherein, in said flood position, a larger portion of light emitted by said lamp passes through said diffusing screen in comparison to said spot position.

2. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 1, wherein the aperture angle is settable based on a change in the diameter of the light impinging on the optical arrangement without altering the angle of incidence of the light illuminating the optical arrangement.

3. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a ratio of surface size of the stepped lens to surface size of the diffusing screen of greater than 2 to 1.

4. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 3, wherein the ratio is greater than 10 to 1.

5. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 3, wherein the ratio is greater than 100 to 1.

6. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 1, wherein the aperture angle of the light emerging from the diffusing screen in a vertical direction is different from the aperture angle in a horizontal direction.

7. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 1, wherein the diffusing screen comprises a plurality of annular surface regions, which scatter light in each case in different directions or to different extents.

8. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 1, wherein, for a stepped lens spotlight having an elliptic reflector having an ellipticity ε

, the ratio of the focal length to the radius n_St1=R_St1/F_St1 of the stepped lens is greater than 0.5 times 1/sqrt(ε

²−

1).

9. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 8, wherein the ratio is greater than 0.7 times 1/sqrt(ε

²−

1).

10. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 8, wherein the ratio is greater than 0.9 times 1/sqrt(ε

²−

1).

11. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 1, wherein the diffusing screen is arranged only in a central and/or centric region of the stepped lens.

12. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 1, wherein the diffusing screen is arranged at a light exit area and/or a light entry area.

13. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 1, wherein the light-diffusing element has a region that diffuses to a greater extent centrically and a region that diffuses to a lesser extent marginally.

14. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 1, wherein the material of the stepped lens and/or of the diffusing screen comprises a material selected from the group consisting of glass, glass-ceramic material, plastic, and a hybrid composite made of glass and plastic.

15. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stepped lens is an aspherical lens or a spherical lens.

16. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stepped lens has a basic body with an essentially planar surface.

17. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stepped lens has an optically beam-shapingly effective basic body with a surface having shape selected from the group consisting of an essentially concave spherical shape, an essentially concave aspherical shape, an essentially convex spherical shape, and an essentially convex aspherical shape.

18. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 1, wherein the concentrically arranged surfaces have a circle-arc segment shape or a cone envelope shape.

19. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 1, wherein the concentrically arranged surfaces are shaped such that an approximately planar wave with phase fronts perpendicular to the optical axis is combined at a real focal point or is converted into a spherical wave whose midpoint appears to lie at a virtual focal point.

20. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stepped lens comprises a material with a first dispersion behavior and a further lens with an opposite refractive power and with a material with a second dispersion behavior so that chromatic aberrations are reduced.

21. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stepped lens is an embossed plastic lens with an optical path length difference at the respective step of less than about 1000 optical wavelengths.

22. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stepped lens is formed or arranged on a first side and the diffusing screen is formed or arranged on a side opposite to the first side.

23. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 1, wherein the concentrically arranged surfaces essentially have the same radial extent.

24. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 1, wherein the concentrically arranged surfaces comprises at least two adjacent annular segments having stepped elevations essentially having the same height.

25. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least that surface of the optical arrangement which faces the light source comprises thermally prestressed glass.

26. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stepped lens and/or the diffusing screen are/is formed as a filter selected from the group consisting of a UV filter, an IR filter, a colored bandpass filter, a conversion filter, and any combinations thereof.

27. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stepped lens and/or the diffusing screen are coated with a mechanical antiscratch layer and/or an antireflection layer.

28. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stepped lens is a planoconvex converging lens or a biconcave negative lens.

29. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stepped lens has a negative focal length.

30. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an ellipsoidal reflector.

31. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 30, wherein the stepped lens has a virtual focal point that can be superimposed with a focal point of the reflector that is remote from the ellipsoidal reflector in a spot position of the stepped lens.

32. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 30, wherein the ellipsoidal reflector comprises a metallic or transparent dielectric glass and/or plastic.

33. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 30, further comprising an auxiliary reflector arranged between the stepped lens and the ellipsoidal reflector.

34. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 1, wherein the diffusing screen has a first surface that is subdivided into facets, each facet being assigned an elevation or depression with a second surface formed in curved fashion, wherein the facets assume different geometrical shapes.

35. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 34, wherein the facets have a polygonal edge contour.

36. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 34, wherein the facets contain different areas.

37. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 34, wherein the facets assume a shape selected from the group consisting of a triangle, quadrangle, pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, and any combinations thereof.

38. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 34, wherein the facets have different orientations.

39. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 34, wherein the elevations or depressions are formed in the shape of spherical caps.

40. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 34, wherein the height of the elevations and/or the depth of the depressions are different.

41. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 34, wherein the respective vertices of the elevations or depressions are arranged along a spiral.

42. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 41, wherein the vertices are arranged on an Archimedes'"'"' spiral.

43. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 41, wherein the arc length between two adjacent vertices along the spiral is almost equidistant.

44. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 41, wherein the wherein the arc length between two adjacent vertices along the spiral are variable.

45. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 34, wherein the facets that are rotated relative to one another.

46. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 34, wherein the facets are offset from their regular position by means of a Monte Carlo method.

47. The stepped lens spotlight as claimed in claim 34, wherein the diffusing screen has a defined granularity that becomes finer in a central region and coarser with increasing distance from the center.