Laser diode, the light source of laser headlights was almost born in the same era as LED. Although the large-scale commercial application of laser diodes is slightly later than LED, their applications are more extensive.
Laser headlights have been called the “reasonable next step” after LED headlights, which are more energy-efficient and more fuel-efficient. This is not the dazzling laser in the movie, it is not even dazzling at all. The principle is that the blue light of the laser diode will penetrate the phosphor material in the headlight unit and convert it into a diffused white light, which is brighter and more eye-friendly.
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The advantages of laser headlights
Laser headlights have most of the advantages of the LED headlight, such as fast response speed, low brightness attenuation, low energy consumption, long life, and so on.
Compared with LED, laser have advantages, especially in terms of volume. Individual laser diode elements can already be up to 10 microns in length, which is much smaller than the size of an ordinary LED element. Therefore, this feature may bring a revolutionary change to car design in the future.
Another significant advantage of laser headlight is in terms of luminous efficiency. For example, the luminous efficiency of general LED lighting can reach about 100 lumens per watt, then the laser diode components can reach about 170 lumens per watt. The use of laser headlights consumes much less energy than LED headlights, further reducing energy consumption and being environmentally friendly.
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The disadvantages of laser headlights
Judging from the current actual situation, the biggest disadvantage of laser headlight is that the cost is too high. Compared with LED headlights, currently laser headlights only used in high-end models of luxury brands. If the cost goes down, laser headlight is likely to become a popular configuration in the future automotive industry. Audi combine the laser lights and LED lights together, taking advantage of the strong divergence of the LED light and the long illumination distance of the laser headlight, so that they take different responsibilities.