Automotive Lighting
VideoExpanding the horizons of car body lighting – Expert Talk by Dr. Thorsten Anger, Lumileds
Recording of an LpS DIGITAL expert talk, published on 29 November 2024 (34 minutes). Dr. Thorsten Anger, Product Manager 3D LED & MxN at Lumileds, explains why car body lighting – light guides, backlit surfaces and three-dimensional lit structures – is still largely bespoke and too costly for mainstream vehicles, and presents Lumileds’ modular answers: the LUXEON Versat 2016 LED family with new UltraBlue and Warm White options, dynamic signature lights with 192 individually addressable pixels, the LUXEON 3D LED series in three performance tiers, and a coin concept with 49 % optical efficiency.
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Light guides, backlit surfaces and three-dimensional lit structures have become a styling signature of new vehicles. But most of these designs are developed for a single platform and remain expensive, so they rarely reach mainstream cars. In this LpS DIGITAL expert talk, Dr. Thorsten Anger, Product Manager 3D LED & MxN at Lumileds, shows how scalable, modular light sources can bring car body lighting to higher volumes at a reasonable cost.
What the talk covers
Many kinds of car body lighting
The talk opens with an overview of car body lighting: singular optical lit elements such as light guides, backlit surfaces, and three-dimensional illuminated structures. Their form follows the vehicle design, so each platform tends to get a bespoke solution – often complex architectures with many individually addressable light points, lit by low-power LEDs and requiring intricate mechanical assembly.
Why mainstream adoption is hard
Peak designs are made for high-end or low-volume vehicles and do not translate economically to broader platforms. Because car body lighting elements vary so much in design, size and function, Dr. Anger makes the case for modular solutions that are scalable, efficient and environmentally friendly.
Lumileds’ building blocks
- LUXEON Versat 2016 LED family – low-power, automotive-qualified LEDs with customizable brightness levels, spectral tuning and a minimized footprint; new UltraBlue and Warm White options extend the range of styles and functions.
- Dynamic signature lights – 192 individually addressable pixels for dynamic styling and functions in a compact design.
- LUXEON 3D LED series – a flexible, highly homogeneous light source for slim, elongated designs, offered in three tiers: standard performance, economic design and high performance.
- Coin concept – modular single-emitter units that combine durable materials with advanced optical layers; they are easy to integrate and allow the mechanical tolerances needed for pedestrian safety.
Optical performance
Collimator lenses provide uniform lighting, diffuse film covers a smooth appearance, and optimized geometries let the light follow the car’s contours. The new coin concept reaches an optical efficiency of 49 % with high luminance homogeneity, which makes it suitable for larger, curved surfaces.
Cost and sustainability
Modular, recyclable products, automated integration and system modularity are meant to make car body lighting feasible for mass production – balancing design ambition with cost efficiency and environmental concerns.
Key takeaway
Car body lighting will only spread beyond premium vehicles with solutions that are customizable, energy-efficient and economical to produce: modular light sources that adapt to many designs instead of one-off developments for each platform.
More on the products: LUXEON Versat 2016 and the design language of advanced vehicles and how modular automotive light sources lower costs and improve repairability.
This expert talk was a sponsored contribution by Lumileds to LpS DIGITAL.
