Hybrid illumination system having a blue laser diode, dichroic mirror and yellow transmissive phosphor converter for generating white light
First Claim
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1. An illumination apparatus comprising:
- a first blue light source to provide a first blue light beam, wherein the first blue light source is a blue laser light source, and the first blue light beam is a blue laser light beam;
a collimating lens, optically coupled to the first blue light source, to collimate the first blue light beam into a collimated blue light beam;
an optical diffuser, optically coupled to the collimating lens, to optically homogenize the collimated blue light beam into a top hat spatially distributed beam;
a transmissive yellow phosphor converter to convert the top hat spatially distributed beam into a phosphor-emitted light beam having a same direction as the top hat spatially distributed beam, wherein most of the phosphor-emitted light beam is yellow light converted from blue light of the top hat spatially distributed beam;
condensing and collimating lenses, optically coupled to the yellow phosphor converter, to condense and collimate the phosphor-emitted light beam into a condensed and collimated phosphor-emitted light beam;
a dichroic mirror, optically coupled to the condensing and collimating lenses, to filter the condensed and collimated phosphor-emitted light beam into a dichroic-filtered light beam passed by the dichroic mirror, the dichroic mirror configured to pass yellow light and to reflect at least some blue light; and
a second blue light source optically coupled to the dichroic mirror, to provide a second blue light beam, the dichroic mirror configured to reflect the second blue light beam in a same direction as the dichroic-filtered light beam to generate a white light beam.
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Abstract
An illumination apparatus is provided that includes a yellow phosphor converter to receive a blue laser light beam and to convert a portion of the blue laser light beam to yellow light, a dichroic mirror optically coupled to the yellow phosphor converter to receive the phosphor-emitted light beam and to filter the phosphor-emitted light beam to provide a dichroic-filtered light beam, the dichroic mirror configured to pass yellow light and to reflect at least some blue light, and a blue light source optically coupled to the dichroic mirror to provide a blue light beam, the dichroic mirror configured to reflect the blue light beam in a same direction as the dichroic-filtered light beam.
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Citations
12 Claims
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1. An illumination apparatus comprising:
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a first blue light source to provide a first blue light beam, wherein the first blue light source is a blue laser light source, and the first blue light beam is a blue laser light beam; a collimating lens, optically coupled to the first blue light source, to collimate the first blue light beam into a collimated blue light beam; an optical diffuser, optically coupled to the collimating lens, to optically homogenize the collimated blue light beam into a top hat spatially distributed beam; a transmissive yellow phosphor converter to convert the top hat spatially distributed beam into a phosphor-emitted light beam having a same direction as the top hat spatially distributed beam, wherein most of the phosphor-emitted light beam is yellow light converted from blue light of the top hat spatially distributed beam; condensing and collimating lenses, optically coupled to the yellow phosphor converter, to condense and collimate the phosphor-emitted light beam into a condensed and collimated phosphor-emitted light beam; a dichroic mirror, optically coupled to the condensing and collimating lenses, to filter the condensed and collimated phosphor-emitted light beam into a dichroic-filtered light beam passed by the dichroic mirror, the dichroic mirror configured to pass yellow light and to reflect at least some blue light; and a second blue light source optically coupled to the dichroic mirror, to provide a second blue light beam, the dichroic mirror configured to reflect the second blue light beam in a same direction as the dichroic-filtered light beam to generate a white light beam. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A headlamp, comprising:
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a first blue light source to provide a first blue light beam, wherein the first blue light source is a blue laser light source, and the first blue light beam is a blue laser light beam; a collimating lens, optically coupled to the first blue light source, to collimate the first blue light beam into a collimated blue light beam; an optical diffuser, optically coupled to the collimating lens, to optically homogenize the collimated blue light beam into a top hat spatially distributed beam; a transmissive yellow phosphor converter to convert the top hat spatially distributed beam into a phosphor-emitted light beam having a same direction as the top hat spatially distributed beam, wherein most of the phosphor-emitted light beam is yellow light converted from blue light of the top hat spatially distributed beam; condensing and collimating lenses, optically coupled to the yellow phosphor converter, to condense and collimate the phosphor-emitted light beam into a condensed and collimated phosphor-emitted light beam; a dichroic mirror, optically coupled to the condensing and collimating lenses, to filter the condensed and collimated phosphor-emitted light beam into a dichroic-filtered light beam passed by the dichroic mirror, the dichroic mirror configured to pass yellow light and to reflect at least some blue light; and a second blue light source, optically coupled to the dichroic mirror, to provide a second blue light beam, the dichroic mirror configured to reflect the second blue light beam in a same direction as the dichroic-filtered light beam to generate a white light beam; a spatial light modulator to modulate the white light beam at a pixel level to generate an image; illumination optics, optically coupled to the dichroic mirror, to receive and arrange the white light beam to illuminate the spatial light modulator; and projection optics, optically coupled to the spatial light modulator to receive the image, map pixels of the image to pixels of a larger image, and project the larger image at a distance away from the headlamp. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method of generating a white light beam in an illumination apparatus, the method comprising:
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providing a first blue light beam, wherein the first blue light beam is a blue laser light beam; with a collimating lens, collimating the first blue light beam into a collimated blue light beam; with an optical diffuser, optically homogenizing the collimated blue light beam into a top hat spatially distributed beam; with a transmissive yellow phosphor converter, converting the top hat spatially distributed beam into a phosphor-emitted light beam having a same direction as the top hat spatially distributed beam, wherein most of the phosphor-emitted light beam is yellow light converted from blue light of the top hat spatially distributed beam; condensing and collimating the phosphor-emitted light beam into a condensed and collimated phosphor-emitted light beam; with a dichroic mirror, filtering the condensed and collimated phosphor-emitted light beam into a dichroic-filtered light beam passed by the dichroic mirror, the dichroic mirror configured to pass yellow light and to reflect at least some blue light; providing a second blue light beam; and with the dichroic mirror, reflecting the second blue light beam in a same direction as the dichroic-filtered light beam to generate the white light beam.
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Specification