GM’s patent application for a “Lighting System Laminated into Glasses using MicroLEDs and Lens” was published this month.
The US Patent Application Publication issued on September 7, 2023, included US 2023/0280522 A1, by applicant GM Global Technology Operations. The company applied for the application in March and describes the system as “lighting systems in vehicles and, in particular, to lighting systems embedded within a window of the vehicle.”
The patent goes on to detail that “the light source transmits a beam of light from a location within the pane to pass through a glass layer and out into the outside environment.” As the window is further described as having two interfaces, “such light will experience total internal reflection at the second interface” and the “internally reflected light is lost to an observer in the outside environment,” limiting the light outside observers see. Per the patent publication, “Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a lighting system which can redirect the light to reduce total internal reflection.”
As to the lighting itself, the patent specifies an array of micro-LEDs with a lens array dispersed between the lights. The lenses within the array will have either a concave, prismatic, or triangular surface.
