Innovative modelling software accelerates LED luminaire design times
The new capabilities enable users to incorporate freeform surfaces in illumination designs to produce optical systems that have increased energy efficiency, superior light control and innovative design forms. In addition, LightTools 8.3 delivers new features for accurate design and modelling of phosphor based LED systems.
The new LightTools Advanced Design Module introduces a set of specialized tools to enable fast, robust modelling of reflective and refractive freeform optics in both single surface and segmented configurations for a diverse set of illumination applications. Freeform optical surfaces provide many advantages over conventional optics for meeting complex illumination requirements, such as precise light control, innovative styling, compact system dimensions and energy efficiency.
In addition, the Advanced Design Module uses proprietary algorithms from Synopsys’ LucidShape products that automatically calculate and construct optical geometries based on user-defined illuminance and intensity patterns. The functional approach gives designers the freedom to focus on overall design objectives rather than the implementation details of complex optical components.
The Freeform Design features are suitable for modelling freeform reflective and refractive surfaces that are automatically shaped to form the resulting light pattern. Freeform design features are beneficial for systems with small light sources, such as LEDs and halogen lamps.
The MacroFocal Reflector tool is ideal for designing multi surface segmented reflectors, with different spreads for each facet. MacroFocal Reflector is useful when designing lighting systems for applications that need precise control of the light pattern or sharp intensity cutoffs at one or more sides of the beam. Applications include street lights, outdoor and architectural lighting systems.
The Procedural Rectangle Lens tool is suited to design surfaces with pillowed optical arrays and enables precise light distribution control in LED luminaires and signal lighting, as well as in applications that require superposition of optical distributions.
The LED Lens tool is suitbale for creating various types of freeform LED collimator lenses, which are effective for producing efficient, highly directed light distributions.
LightTools 8.3 includes capabilities to assist designers in modelling spatial temperature and power density variations in phosphor based LEDs. Phosphors are known to change output under various conditions, including wide temperature ranges and changes in power density. These factors are important to consider when modelling phosphor layers in applications such as high power white LED packages.
LightTools 8.3 includes a new application programming interface (API) that gives users a high level of flexibility for developing custom volume scattering components that can be dynamically linked with LightTools. The API is particularly useful for defining interactions in phosphor based LEDs.
A new Volume Scatter Logger has been added to the LightTools Utility Library. The utility creates a log of scattering and phosphor conversion events to show what is happening in a scattering material, such as the amount of absorbed and lost energy, as well as shifts in wavelength. Without this type of capability, designers must infer what is happening within the volume by looking at the exiting rays. The new utility gives users greater insight into where energy density changes occur within the material.
Availability
LightTools version 8.3 is available now.
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