LED light sources for head-up displays

The concept of Head-Up Displays is simple: move the important information a driver needs to see up into their line of sight, so they don’t have to take their eyes off the road. A projected image appears to be floating freely over the hood, at a distance of approximately two meters. Mirrors direct light from an image-generating LCD to the windshield where it is superimposed with the driver’s field of view. The LCD is lit with an appropriate light source. Requirements like long lifetime, vibration resistance, thermal stability and high luminance make LED light sources ideal for use in the automotive industry. The paper discusses the principles of the optical system design of an LED light source for Head-Up Displays.