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JP-7855966-B2 - Optical components

JP7855966B2JP 7855966 B2JP7855966 B2JP 7855966B2JP-7855966-B2

Inventors

  • 安藤 浩
  • 舘 鋼次郎

Assignees

  • 株式会社デンソー
  • トヨタ自動車株式会社
  • 株式会社ミライズテクノロジーズ

Dates

Publication Date
20260511
Application Date
20220808

Claims (7)

  1. An optical component, A reflective member (2, 6) having reflective surfaces (2a, 6a) that reflect light, It is possible to switch between a transparent state and a reflective state, and comprises a dimming member (3) having a plurality of partitioned regions (31 to 3N) and positioned opposite the reflective surface, The dimming member sequentially switches one of the multiple regions to a transparent state, while the remaining regions, which are different from the one region that has been made transparent , become reflective. An optical member wherein the total time for all of the multiple regions to become transparent once is defined as the overall switching time (S), and the overall switching time is 1/30 second or less .
  2. It further comprises a light guide (6) made of a transparent material, which is separate from the reflective member. The optical member according to claim 1, wherein the reflective member and the light-adjusting member are attached to the light guide.
  3. The surface of the dimming member facing the reflective member is defined as the opposing surface (3a), the surface opposite to the opposing surface is defined as the emission surface (3b), the direction along the opposing surface in which light is guided by the reflective region and the reflective surface is defined as the light guidance direction, the gap between the opposing surface and the reflective member in the direction normal to the opposing surface is defined as T, and the angle of incidence of light incident on the emission surface from the opposite side of the reflective member is defined as θ 1 Let D be the width of each of the multiple regions in the light-guiding direction, then 2T・tanθ 1 The optical member according to claim 1, satisfying ≥ D.
  4. The reflective member is a light guide (6) made of a transparent material with a refractive index n (n > 1), The dimming member is attached to the light guide, The reflective surface is a smooth surface (6a) of the light guide that faces the adhesive surface (6b) to which the dimming member is attached, and reflects the light reflected in the reflective region of the incident light ( L2 ) incident on the light guide toward the dimming member by total internal reflection. Let T be the distance in the thickness direction between the adhesive surface and the smooth surface of the light guide. The light guide has a maximum height Td (>T) in the thickness direction and a protruding portion (61) that protrudes beyond the smooth surface. The optical member according to claim 1, wherein the protruding portion has an incident surface (6c) that extends in a direction intersecting the plane formed by the adhesive surface, causing ambient light ( L1 ) to be incident on the side of the dimming member.
  5. It further comprises a prism array (7) having multiple prism sections (71), The optical member according to claim 4 , wherein the prism array is attached to the side of the light-adjusting member opposite to the reflective member.
  6. The side of the dimming member opposite to the light guide is defined as the emission surface (3b), the direction along the emission surface in which light is guided by the reflective region and the reflective surface is defined as the light guidance direction, the thickness of the portion of the light guide where the adhesive surface and the reflective surface face each other is defined as T, and the ambient light (L) directed to the incident surface is defined as 1 The angle of incidence is θ 2 Let D be the width of each of the multiple regions in the light-guiding direction, φ be the angle of incidence of light incident on the light guide onto the adhesive surface, and n be the refractive index of the light guide. Then, 2T・tanφ = 2T・tan(sin -1 (sinθ 2 The optical member according to claim 4, satisfying /n))≧D.
  7. Let N be the number of the multiple regions (N: a natural number of 2 or more), and let the region located at the end on the side where the ambient light enters be the first region (31), and let the remaining regions from the first region toward the end opposite to the end be the second to the Nth region (32 to 3N), and let t1 and tN be the times when the first region and the Nth region are transparent, respectively, let Rf be the reflectance of the reflective surface, and let Rm be the reflectance of the region in the reflective state of the dimming member. The optical member according to any one of claims 1 to 6 , wherein the dimming member is subjected to dimming control that satisfies tN = t1 / ( Rm (N-1) × Rf (N-1) ).

Description

This invention relates to an optical component comprising a pair of mirror-functioning members capable of guiding and emitting incident light. Conventionally, an optical element is known in which, when ambient light enters a pair of mirrors—one primarily reflecting light and the other a half-mirror that reflects and transmits light—reflects and emits the ambient light between the two mirrors (for example, Patent Document 1). Hereinafter, the surface of the optical element that primarily reflects ambient light will be referred to as the "reflecting surface," and the surface that reflects and emits ambient light will be referred to as the "emission surface." The optical element described in Patent Document 1 allows for wide-area visibility of the surrounding scenery by having a portion of the ambient light incident on the half-mirror reflected back to the mirror, while another portion of the ambient light is emitted to the outside via the half-mirror. This repeated reflection and emission of ambient light across a wide area between the pair of mirrors enables wide-area visibility of the surrounding scenery. Patent No. 6172511 This is a cross-sectional view showing an optical member of the first embodiment.This figure shows an example of the partitioned areas of the dimming component and the connection to the circuit board.This is an explanatory diagram showing the case where the first region of the dimming component is transparent.This is an explanatory diagram showing the case where the second region of the dimming component is transparent.This is an explanatory diagram illustrating the case where the Nth region of the dimming component is transparent.This is an explanatory diagram regarding the width of the partitioned area of the dimming component.This is a cross-sectional view showing the optical member of the second embodiment.This is an explanatory diagram showing the case where the first region of the dimming component is transparent.This is an explanatory diagram illustrating the case where the K region of the dimming component is transparent.This is an explanatory diagram illustrating the case where the Nth region of the dimming component is transparent.This figure shows the optical member and internal light guide of the third embodiment.This is an explanatory diagram of the protruding portion of the light guide body according to the third embodiment.This is an explanatory diagram illustrating the gaps in light rays caused by the shape of the light guide in the comparative example.This is an explanatory diagram illustrating the suppression of gaps in light rays due to the shape of the light guide according to the third embodiment.This is an enlarged cross-sectional view showing other examples of the shape of the protruding part of the light guide.This is an explanatory diagram of the emission of incident light in the optical member of the third embodiment. The embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the following embodiments, parts that are identical or equivalent to each other will be denoted by the same reference numerals. (First Embodiment) The optical member 1 of the first embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. The optical member 1 of this embodiment can be used as a blind spot assisting device, which is attached to, for example, a member or obstacle that obstructs the user's field of view and creates a blind spot, and allows the user to see the scenery in the blind spot area. For example, in the case of an in-vehicle application, the optical member 1 is attached to the pillar of the vehicle on which it is mounted, and guides ambient light from the area that becomes a blind spot due to the pillar towards the user, allowing the user to see the scenery in the blind spot area. Figure 1 corresponds to the cross-sectional view along line I-I in Figure 2. In Figures 3 to 6, to make it easier to understand whether the multiple regions 31 to 3N of the dimming member 3 (described later) are in a transparent or reflective state, the reflective regions are hatched, and the transparent regions are shown in white. Furthermore, the cross-sectional views from Figure 3 onwards correspond to Figure 1. The optical component 1 comprises, for example, a reflective member 2 having a reflective surface 2a that reflects light, and a dimming member 3 positioned opposite to the reflective surface 2a, substantially parallel to it, and capable of switching between a transparent state that transmits light and a reflective state that reflects light. The optical component 1 is mounted on a housing or holding member (not shown) with the reflective member 2 and dimming member 3 held in a substantially parallel state. When ambient light enters the dimming member 3 from behind the reflective member 2, a portion of the ambient light is repeatedly reflected by the reflective portion of the dimming member 3 and the reflective surface 2a of the reflective m