Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier honored the winners of the German Future Prize 2024 in Berlin at the end of November. The Federal President awarded the prize for technology and innovation to the team from ams OSRAM and the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM for the technological implementation of their idea of an LED matrix that turns the car headlight into a projector.
The team has developed a spotlight light source that is smaller, lighter, more efficient, more intelligent and more precise in its light emission than conventional light sources. With the new system, car headlights, for example, can illuminate the road precisely and brightly without disturbing oncoming traffic or pedestrians or endangering them with glare. This cannot be achieved with a conventional low-beam/high-beam combination, as the spatial distribution of the light must be controllable and able to be optimally adapted to the respective situation. To achieve this, the new headlamp does not have two light sources like conventional headlamps, but 25,600 LEDs in a matrix of 320 x 80 light points. Each individual LED can be controlled. Together with an optical system, this creates a spotlight that works in a similar way to a video projector.
The new system requires minimal installation space and works efficiently because only the LEDs required for the desired light distribution are switched on. In addition to optical data communication between computer chips, new areas of application for the digitally controllable LED matrix include the field of augmented reality (AR). With AR glasses, which reflect digital information into the field of vision in addition to the real environment, the light matrix becomes a virtual monitor. Compactness and energy efficiency are particularly important here, as AR glasses must be lightweight and have a long battery life.
The German Future Prize has been awarded annually since 1997 and is one of the most important science awards in Germany. It honors outstanding technical, engineering and scientific achievements that lead to application-ready products.
