Illumination device with light guide having angled light-accepting surfaces
AssigneeLumileds LLC
InventorsVarun Dev Kakkar, Arjen Van Der Sijde, Erno Fancsali, Chunxia Feng, Nicola Bettina Pfeffer
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Abstract
A device includes a light-emitting device (LED) having at least two vertical light-emitting sides, and a ring-shaped light guide having a bottom side, a top side comprising a light-emitting surface, an inner sidewall, and an outer sidewall defining an indentation having at least two vertical in-coupling surfaces mated to the at least two vertical light-emitting sides of the LED.
Claims20
An illumination device, comprising:
- a light-emitting diode having a planar first light-producing surface configured to produce first light and a planar second light-producing surface configured to produce second light,
- the second light-producing surface being adjacent to the first light-producing surface and angled with respect to the first light-producing surface;
- and
- a light guide shaped to guide light along a closed path that defines opposing first and second directions around the light guide,
- the light guide having a planar first light-accepting surface positioned to receive the first light and direct the first light into the light guide to propagate in the first direction around the light guide,
- the light guide having a planar second light-accepting surface positioned to receive the second light and direct the second light into the light guide to propagate in the second direction around the light guide,
- the second light-accepting surface being adjacent to the first light-accepting surface and angled with respect to the first light-accepting surface,
- the light guide having a planar light-emitting surface configured to extract at least some of the guided first light and at least some of the guided second light out of the light guide through the light-emitting surface,
- the light-emitting surface being angled with respect to the first light-accepting surface and angled with respect to the second light-accepting surface.
A method for producing an illumination device, the method comprising:
- providing a light guide,
- the light guide configured to guide light in a closed path as guided light,
- the closed path defining a plane,
- the light guide including a light-emitting surface that is generally planar, substantially parallel to the plane, and configured to emit at least a portion of the guided light,
- the light guide further including a first light-accepting surface that is generally planar and angled with respect to the light-emitting surface,
- the light guide further including a second light-accepting surface that is generally planar and angled with respect to the light-emitting surface, the second light-accepting surface being adjacent to the first light-accepting surface and angled with respect to the first light-accepting surface;
- and
- positioning a light-emitting diode proximate the light guide,
- the light-emitting diode including a planar first light-producing surface positioned to emit light into the light guide through the first light-accepting surface of the light guide,
- the light-emitting diode including a planar second light-producing surface positioned to emit light into the light guide through the second light-accepting surface of the light guide.
A method for producing illumination from a light guide, the light guide shaped to guide light along a closed path, the closed path defining opposing first and second directions around the light guide, the method comprising:
- producing first light at a planar first light-producing surface of a light-emitting diode;
- directing the first light through a first light-accepting surface of a light guide;
- guiding the first light in the first direction around the light guide;
- producing second light at a planar second light-producing surface of the light-emitting diode, the second light-producing surface being adjacent to the first light-producing surface and angled with respect to the first light-producing surface;
- directing the second light through a second light-accepting surface of a light guide, the second light-accepting surface being adjacent to the first light-accepting surface and angled with respect to the first light-accepting surface;
- and
- guiding the second light in the second direction around the light guide.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.