Paper
14 September 2007 Large, thin, flexible, and low-cost light emitting surfaces
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
Solid State Lighting is becoming increasingly more advanced, both in terms of lumen output as well as energy efficiency. At the same time, packages emitting enough lumens for lighting applications are decreasing in size. This smaller packaging enables several new applications. In this paper we will discuss one of these new applications: low cost, large, flexible and very thin light emitting surfaces. Our approach consists of using very thin transparent lightguides. Due to their limited thickness, these lightguides are quite flexible. Tiny low power, side-emitting LEDs are used to couple light into these lightguides. A carefully calculated outcoupling structure ensures light is coupled out uniformly. Although this general principle is known, some aspects are new to our approach. The flexibility of our thin lightguides can be very useful for numerous lighting applications; a radius of curvature of just a few centimeters is easily obtained, while still maintaining good outcoupling and uniformity. Furthermore, we show that for several geometries, a perfect homogeneous brightness can only be obtained using a precise pattern and density distribution of outcoupling structures.
© (2007) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
B. A. Salters and M. P. C. M. Krijn "Large, thin, flexible, and low-cost light emitting surfaces", Proc. SPIE 6669, Seventh International Conference on Solid State Lighting, 66690T (14 September 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.734077
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KEYWORDS
Waveguides

Light emitting diodes

Prototyping

LCDs

Light sources and illumination

Reflection

Light

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