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FrozenGate by Avery

What diodes and power are these?? BMW Laserlight

C

cyclonite

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Hello,

Just curious to know the diode specs (at least diameter, wavelength and wattage) for the Laserlight head lights on new BMW vehicles.

For those who haven't seen them, here's a good and short piece:

How It Works - The BMW i8’s Laser Headlights - Popular Mechanics

The 3 diodes appear to be normal canned types.

I would guess these are far more powerful than the 445nm 3.5Watt ones that we have easy access to.

Thanks.
 





Let me say, I think your question was a fair one as I can't find the diode they use in laser headlights though 10 minutes of forum searches either, maybe it's buried there somewhere and I'm asking the wrong questions, but it seems it is a specialized diode you wouldn't easily get anyway, not without buying one from the headlight manufacturer. I could be so wrong about that though, it might end up being a common laser diode, based on this:

“The first use for blue-laser diodes and still their biggest application are in the Blu-ray optical drives,” says Nagappan. “At 405 nm, these diodes are actually in the UV [ultraviolet] range.” Development of laser diodes for other applications has only fairly recently grown—for example, as light sources for projectors. “The Casio laser-LED hybrid projector uses a blue-laser diode with a longer wavelength than the UV-laser diodes used for data storage, as well as much higher output power,” he adds. “In the last three years, people have been developing high-output laser diodes for the projection market.” According to Nagappan, you can add a phosphor to high-power blue-laser diodes; the combination yields white light. “That’s what BMW is doing,” he says.
Click to expand...

Based on the above, from http://www.edn.com/electronics-blog...eadlights-the-future-of-solid-state-lighting- - Now I'm wondering if they aren't using 1 or 2 watt 445nm laser diodes like the M140?

I did find this through a Google search with a video on the page, still doesn't answer your question though:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a9949/laser-headlights-how-they-work-16380680/



Now I'm wondering what colors, if any, would break out if the white light from it were shot through a prism? It can't be red or green, right? I mean, blue is blue... how therefore does it produce white which is composed of several colors if not many?
 
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Not me, but I now know more than I did before finding that stuff online. Wish I could have just given you a straight answer, you didn't get one. My stance is forums are shortcuts to getting information, or just for sharing what you enjoy. Searching can only get you so far sometimes, specific questions need to be asked and sorry I don't have that answer.

I found some awesome info about phosphor when illuminated by 445 to 455nm in this document, it actually does put out a wide spectrum of color which is perceived as white.

Click here for PDF doc:http://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwrS...4453.pdf/RK=0/RS=2h35c5TAw3BOPEvJ6zpU1RenE8k-
 
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Alaskan said:
Now I'm wondering what colors, if any, would break out if the white light from it were shot through a prism? It can't be red or green, right? I mean, blue is blue... how therefore does it produce white which is composed of several colors if not many?
Click to expand...

I guess you missed the part about the "phosphors". They shoot the blue light onto a material that phosphoresces white light, which is then directed through the lens.

-G
 
I saw it, just had a hard time believing the phosphor could do that, amazing. I'm not going to search every page of those links to confirm they didn't say which diode is used by the headlight manufacturers, that's all he wanted to know, which diode. Now I've read enough to see any 445nm diode will work, but it took some looking and reading, wish someone would spoon feed me instead, less work! Now I'm off to find how efficiently a blue 445nm laser diode will produce that white light.
 
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