Nichia and Infineon launch industry’s first high-definition micro-LED matrix solution
Automotive LED lighting technology has developed rapidly in recent years as a means for vehicle manufacturers to enhance driving comfort and road safety. In this regard, matrix LED technology for adaptive driving beam has become an important headlight feature for selective road illumination. Three years ago, Infineon and Nichia announced the joint development of a high-definition (HD) light engine with more than 16,000 micro-LEDs for headlight applications. It has been a success. Collaborating with a European Tier1 company, the micro-LED matrix solution with this industry’s first fully integrated micro-LED light engine for HD adaptive driving beam applications which has been tested based on AEC (Automotive Electronics Council) qualification requirements will be seen in a German premium vehicle in 2023.
The µPLS light engine uses Nichia's unique in-house LED chip and micro-LED technology and an integrated LED driver IC from Infineon that can drive all 16,384 micro-LEDs individually using pulse-width modulation (PWM) control. Additionally, the driver IC monitors each micro-LED separately and provides on-chip temperature monitoring allowing for optimal thermal control. Integrated video interfaces enable high-speed transmission of the video signal from the light pattern generator unit. Unlike current HD matrix solutions, Infineon’s driver IC only activates the LEDs that are actually needed for a light pattern. This dramatically increases the energy efficiency of the µPLS light engine at much smaller form factor compared to micro-mirror-based HD matrix solutions in the market.
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