Ams Osram brightens up its headlight LED

In the constant pursuit of coaxing more out of a chip, ams Osram has announced what it claims to be the brightest LED on the market for automotive headlights.

The new Oslon Black Flat X typically delivers 460 lm when driven at 1A, which outshines the 395 lm of the predecessor Oslon Black Flat S, introduced in September 2020.

The company declined to reveal how it achieved the 16% leap in output.

Whatever the engineering was, the latest addition to the Oslon Black family is available now in 1- and 2-chip versions, with other multiple-chip versions following in mid-2022, the company said. The multiple-chip versions are intended to suit the varying design and brightness requirements of different headlight assembly makers. When working with LEDs, manufacturers typically use a number of chips to achieve the desired brightness.

The 1-chip variation measures 3.75×3.75 mm.

Ams Osram would not share prices with LEDs Magazine.

It’s not clear how the new chip might fit in with the eXchangeable Light Engine (XLE), which had been a headlight project of ams Osram’s now disbanded Osram Continental joint venture. Ams Osram has yet to fully explain the status and ownership of XLE following the end of the joint venture. LEDs got no clarity when we asked what role the new chip might play in the XLE scheme.

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Meanwhile, ams Osram continues to develop a pixelated automotive LED headlight technology called Eviyos, and expects to commercialize it over the next year or so.

“We will see the first cars equipped with it on the road in 2023,” the spokesperson said.

Eviyos makes use of a pixelated LED, with over 25,600 individually addressable pixels on the LED.

As LEDs has pointed out, the Eviyos technology has the appearance of a micro LED design, although ams Osram is not publicly labeling it as such. The company has described it as having emitters spaced 40 µm apart, which would fit the definition of a micro LED being 100 µm or smaller per side.

Eviyos is designed with intelligence that can switch off certain pixels when required. For example, a headlight’s beam can be narrowed when the system detects an oncoming vehicle in the opposite lane, thus minimizing glare for the other driver.

Eviyos is intended not only to illuminate but also to provide HD projections onto the road that serve as safety and warning signs.

MARK HALPER  is a contributing editor for LEDs Magazine, and an energy, technology, and business journalist ([email protected]).

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