Design of free-form reflector for vehicle LED low-beam headlamp

A method is proposed for the design of a vehicle low-beam headlamp system comprising a reflector and an LED light source. In the proposed approach, the profile of the reflector is designed using a free-form (FF) surface construction method such that each incident ray is directed in such a way as to form a user-specified light pattern on the measuring plane. The light ray paths within the headlamp system are analyzed using an exact analytical model and a skew-ray tracing approach. The validity of the proposed FF design method is demonstrated by means of ZEMAX simulations. It is shown that the light pattern formed on the measuring plane is in good agreement with the target pattern specified by ECE R112. The FF design method is mathematically straightforward and easily implemented in computer code. As such, it provides a useful tool for the design and analysis tasks in optical systems design.