Excerpts from an interesting Nov 2016 blog post at Osram
https://www.carlightblog.com/2016/11/11/perfect-pixel-light-3072-leds/
Quote:
It’s likely to be the next big thing in car lights. Recently unveiled headlights with more than 3,000 light emitting diodes from Osram can specifically illuminate any part in front of the car or leave it dark. This makes it possible to create high-resolution glare-free high beam without any mechanical parts.
You can already buy glare-free high beam. The same goes for matrix lights. So what’s new about these headlights which have now been introduced by a consortium made up of Daimler, Osram, headlight manufacturer Hella, semiconductor specialist Infineon and the Fraunhofer Institute? Well, this is pixel light, which can be considered as matrix light with a much higher number of LEDs. While Vauxhall’s Astra illuminates the road with 16 LEDs per headlight and Mercedes’ current E-Class with 84, the test headlights which are close to production use a massive 3,072. Of course, individually they’re not as powerful as the ones in existing headlights. Taken together, they pretty much exceed everything that’s been around so far though. Each of the LEDs in the pixel light headlights provides a luminous flux of one lumen, totaling around 3,000. That corresponds to the level of xenon light which so far has been the benchmark in this category.
...Integrating more than 3,000 LEDs into just one headlight was a technical challenge. Such a big number can’t be wired in a conventional way. That’s why the LEDs from Osram are put together directly with a control chip from Infineon. The technology for this sophisticated connection was developed by the Fraunhofer Institute. 1,024 light emitting diodes have been combined in one array, with three [very small] arrays being used in one headlight. The light is projected onto the road using a lens, which, along with the entire integration into the housing, is provided by Hella.
