Etendue-preserving mixing and projection optics for high-luminance LEDs, applied to automotive headlamps

By having a single optical element combine the light of several high luminance LEDs, a high luminance light source can be formed, with shape and emission characteristics adaptable to nearly all illumination problems. The illuminance distribution of this virtual source facilitates the generation of the desired intensity pattern via its imaging-stye projection into the far field. This projection is achieved by one refractive and one reflective freeform surface, both calculated simultaneously by the 3D SMS method, which is herein demonstrated for an LED automotive headlamp.