Innovations in photonics technology have the potential to revolutionize both the inside and the outside of the automobile, making driving, simpler, safer, and more economical. Some of the most interesting applications areas are: lighting, communications, night vision, display, entertainment, and controls. However, the commercialization of these technologies will depend on a number of factors: cost, proven improvements in safety, economy of operation, availability of mass-produced components with high uniformity and reliability, regulations, and standards. The automotive industry recognizes the utility of a roadmap to focus all players, from basic device manufacturing and component integrators, to set manufacturers and ultimately automotive assemblers. In this paper we report on progress on an important component of this roadmap concerning adaptive front-lighting systems (AFS).
We propose a technique for calculating the color separation gratings aimed at separating plane light beams of different wavelengths into different diffraction orders. The technique is based on minimizing the difference between prism complex transmission functions and the complex amplitudes of beams generated for different wavelengths. We derived an analytical expression for the profile of a color separation grating that generalizes the familiar gratings onto the case of a more general wavelength relations. The technique is used to design diffractive optical elements (DOEs) intended to generate desired light beams at different wavelengths. The DOE intended to operate two wavelengths is designed using a nonlinear superposition of phase functions describing required transformation of input beams for two different wavelengths.
This paper reports on the development of an intelligent electro-optical device for the 3D detection of drive scenarios and obstacles recognition; the work is being carried out in the frame of a national program, under the acronym OPTO3D and involving Centro Ricerche Fiat, Istituto per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica and University of Trento. The system is finalized to automotive drive assistance functions, particularly to the pre-crash application. It is based on a new CMOS image sensor that enhances the passive 2D vision through the on-pixel integration of distance information, with high dynamic range. The 3D detection is based on a novel active imaging technique, derived from the time of flight concept. Novel intelligent processing algorithms support the objects recognition.
The paper addresses the design and the fabrication of beam shapers for polychromatic light. A design criteria is proposed to correct both the color of the zero order, typical of binary structure, and to correct rainbow effects often visible at the border of the shaped beam. A simple case based on binary zone plates is presented with a simplified explanation of the more general procedure. Large binary and continuous profile elements are shown.
A new method of calculation of binary-phase and quantized diffractive optical elements (DOEs) is proposed. The design uses a specific series expression for the quantized DOE transmission function and is based on the gradient search algorithm for the optimization of truncated series approaching the quantized complex transmission function. Fast designs of binary beam shapers and multiorder binary gratings with equal order intensities are reported with the efficiency in the range of 70 - 75% and the root-mean-square errors of 3 - 5%. The design of binary DOEs that transform the gaussian beam into Gauss-Hermite (0,1) and (1,1) complex amplited distributions is also presented.
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