Laser-based automotive lighting started appearing on a BMW concept car two years ago. Initially it was more or less dismissed as a flight of fancy, but lately it’s looking more and more feasible as an actual, real way of increasing safety performance and expanding design and style prospects. Laser headlamps open the door to previously-unreachable levels of high beam performance, for example, and unprecedented small headlamp size. We’ll likely see the first laser-based headlamps commercialised in the next years. That’s why we’ve released our DVN technical report on laser automotive lighting technology. It has been a challenging report to compile—most of those companies working on it are keeping their progress to themselves as closely-guarded secrets, which is regrettable; history shows us that those players who participate in relatively open exchange of ideas on new technology are often at the forefront of that technology’s eventual market success.
I want to personally thank Chandrajit Basu from Hannover University, and Ralf Schäfer who worked days and nights gathering information for the report. I also very much appreciate the DVN interviews granted by Sh?ji Nakamura from Santa Barbara University (the inventor of the blue LED), Dr. habil. B. Roth head of HOT at the Hannover University, Jürgen Antonitsch from ZKW, Hans-Theo Dorissen from Hella, and OSRAM. There’s much to be learned by paying close attention to the thoughts of these eminent lighting minds.
The primary main audience for this report is managers and technical specialists who are confronted with questions and decisions around laser technology and want to gain a solid basic understanding of it. We cover the various topics from a broader view by giving typical examples and data going into detail and hypothesising a range of possible executions. I’m proud of this report; I hope it will be interesting to you and will spur your increased interest in laser-based car lighting.
Sincerely yours
DVN Editor in Chief