Some industry experts have pointed out that laser headlights are the mainstream solution for future automotive lighting. Today, after experiencing halogen lamps, Xenon HIDs and LEDs, automotive headlamps have ushered in laser headlights that have been applied in some high-end models. The continuous innovation of car headlight technology also has its important significance. Today, the evaluation of vehicle lights is not limited to a single indicator of lighting brightness, and the energy consumption, design, and driving assistance functions of vehicle lights must be considered. Guotai Junan recently conducted a series of analyses on laser lights with the theme of laser lighting. The think tank Jun takes everyone to learn more about it.

In comparison, laser lights have many advantages such as high energy efficiency, small size, and good directivity. Relevant investigation and analysis show that although the market generally believes that laser lights are still in the concept product stage, as of now, laser lights have been successfully deployed in many high-end models, and their popularity and market size have exceeded expectations.

In 2015, mass production models equipped with laser headlights on the market were quite limited, only the BMW i8, and the rest included a small number of concept models (such as the Audi R8, the total number of which will not exceed 100). By 2016, some models in the BMW 7 Series have finally been equipped with laser headlights. Due to the small stock base, the output growth rate of laser headlights is relatively high.

According to Research and Markets' forecast, the compound annual growth rate of output value of laser lights is as high as 267%. The following is a simple calculation of the market space based on the sales of the BMW i8 and some 7 Series. According to the BMW Annual Report, the global sales of the BMW i8 in 2016 were approximately 6,000. The entire BMW 7 Series sold a total of 60,000. Two series are equipped with lasers. The model of the headlamp is conservatively estimated to account for 10%, so it is estimated that the total output of the year is nearly 7,000 sets. Because laser headlamps are more expensive, about $ 10,000, it can be inferred that the market size in 2016 was nearly $ 70 million. Based on a growth rate of 267%, the size of the laser car light market in 2020 may reach $ 3.5 billion.

In addition, the Yole market research report states that the global automotive lighting market size will be approximately US $ 27 billion in 2020. It is estimated that the output value of laser automotive lights will account for about 8% of the automotive lighting market at that time. Considering that the unit price of laser car lights is much higher than other types, and the penetration rate is about 5%, it can be seen that the industry has a bright future.

Some industry experts have pointed out that laser headlights are the mainstream solution for future automotive lighting. Looking back, after experiencing halogen lamps, Xenon HIDs and LEDs, automotive headlamps ushered in the laser headlights of which related technologies have been applied in some high-end models. Laser lights have great advantages in terms of brightness, energy consumption, and shape design. Although the manufacturing cost is relatively high at this stage, the mass production process is close to maturity. It is expected that the penetration rate will rapidly expand after the cost is reduced and become the automotive lighting market Important composition.

At the same time, we can see that the speed of upgrading the headlight technology is accelerating. In fact, since 2004, LED headlights have been active in the design of car lights, and intelligent LED headlight systems such as adaptive high beams have come out one after another. In 2014, the BMW i8 became the first production car equipped with a laser high beam. The iterative replacement of automotive headlights is accelerating, and the popularity of laser headlights will be faster than expected. According to the analysis of the penetration path of xenon LED composite lamps, LED headlights, and LED matrix lights from tipped cars to mid-end cars, laser lights will appear in most high-end models in 2018 and become the standard for mid-range cars in 2025 Configuration, the potential market size is up to tens of millions of units.

There is no doubt that the continuous innovation of automotive headlight technology also has its important significance. Today, the evaluation of vehicle lights is not limited to a single indicator of lighting brightness, and the energy consumption, design, and driving assistance functions of vehicle lights must be considered. This is because new energy vehicles are an inevitable trend, and the reduction in energy consumption of lights is beneficial to the efficient use of batteries. Second, new light sources such as LEDs and lasers give car lights more freedom in design. In addition, the new lights can meet the intelligent control needs of assisted driving.

According to reports, compared to LED lights, laser headlights use blue laser light as a radiation source, and then synthesize a white beam through a yellow phosphor lens. Among them, the short-wave blue laser diode has a brightness more than a thousand times that of the LED, and only 60% of the energy consumption of the latter is required. In addition to the powerful advantages of brightness, the contrast and focus of the beam also surpass that of traditional car lights. Among them, BMW's laser headlights have a color temperature of 5500 to 6000K, which is an international standard for higher headlight temperatures.

Driving safety and intelligence

Analysis points out that in the future, laser lights will help drive safety and intelligence. Because the high-brightness white light of the laser car light is generated by the blue laser exciting the yellow phosphorus filter, it can avoid the laser damage that the public is worried about. The working distance of the laser high beam is up to 600 meters, and the ultra-long irradiation distance ensures the safety of driving at night. In addition, laser headlights are also better carriers for smart headlights, such as smart matrix headlights and dynamic headlight technology that can be better achieved with lasers.

The safety of laser headlights is guaranteed, and the long-distance irradiation distance ensures the safety of driving at night. In laser car lights, laser refers to the excitation light source, not the illumination light. From the perspective of the mechanism of white light formation, laser headlights work similarly to white LEDs. The white light belongs to fluorescence rather than laser light, so the laser damage that you worry about will not occur. At present, laser headlights are only used in high beam mode, with working distances of up to 600 meters and brightness of 580cd / mm2, far exceeding the traditional LED high beam lights, greatly improving the driver's field of vision at night. As for the problem of high beams affecting oncoming vehicles, the intelligent sensing system can detect road conditions to switch in advance, or use matrix technology for local lighting.

Laser lights complement intelligent lights. Hundreds of lighting programs will be adopted for future car lights according to different road conditions. Although most of them have been completed with LEDs, the directivity and brightness of laser car lights have more advantages and can achieve more intelligent designs. For example, Audi combines intelligent matrix technology with laser headlights, and through a micro-mirror array, it can automatically turn off some of the headlight units based on the direction of the opposite car and change the irradiation area. In addition, as a laser emission source, laser headlights can also be used as auxiliary light sources for intelligent driving systems such as collision warning, emergency braking, automatic cruise control, and ADAS. For example, Laser headlight interference sensing technology is expected to be used as a vehicle width guidance indicator, which can avoid driving accidents at night and maintain a safe distance from the vehicle in front.

显示与通信新疆域

Studies have shown that laser lighting uses lasers instead of white light LEDs in a variety of scenarios to achieve functions such as public lighting, display lighting, and projection imaging. Miniaturization of laser projections can also lead to consumer electronics applications such as mobile phone projection. In addition, if the laser is used instead of the LED, the data transmission rate of LiFi will be greatly increased.

Laser lighting is an upgraded version of LED lighting, and laser lights reflect the vigorous development of laser lighting. In summary, laser lighting uses lasers instead of white light LEDs to implement functions such as public lighting, display lighting, and projection imaging, such as laser projection and laser television. Laser miniaturization can also lead to consumer electronics applications such as mobile phone projection. The essence of laser TV is laser projection display. Laser TV consists of a projection screen and a laser projector. The projector can project a 100-inch effect only 60 cm from the screen. Compared with ordinary projectors, laser TV uses red, green and blue lasers or white lasers to replace xenon lamps, greatly improving color saturation. Unlike OLED and other technologies, the nature of laser projection makes the cost of expanding the display size extremely low, so laser TVs are suitable for large screens or outdoor scenes.

LiFi uses a laser to greatly increase data transmission speed. In order to further improve the efficiency, the original LiFi LED light source can be replaced by a semiconductor laser. Studies show that the transmission rate of LiFi with a modulated laser as a carrier is about ten times that of an LED with a carrier. White LEDs are obtained by exciting yellow phosphorus with blue LEDs. The light-emitting process limits the modulation rate, while white lasers can be obtained by mixing different wavelengths. At the same time that the modulation rate increases, the signal frequency band also doubles. The LiFi rate using LED is about 10Gb / s, while the LiFi using laser can easily reach 100Gb / s.