CN114994826A - Light guide element and USB interface light-emitting structure thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses a light guide element and a light-emitting structure of a USB interface thereof. The light guide element comprises a light guide element body and a plurality of light guide rings; The incident light beams are respectively guided into a plurality of light guide rings; the front end surface and the rear end surface of each light guide ring are respectively the light emitting surface and the pattern surface. The invention has high utilization efficiency of light, good luminous uniformity and high luminous efficiency.

Description

Light-guiding element and its USB interface light-emitting structure

technical field

The invention relates to a light-emitting structure of a USB interface.

Background technique

FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of the overall structure of an existing vehicle-mounted USB interface device, and FIG. 2 shows a schematic diagram of a light-emitting structure of an existing vehicle-mounted USB interface. Please refer to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 . The conventional vehicle-mounted USB interface device shown in FIG. 1 includes a housing 90 , two LED light sources 91 , two light guide elements 92 , a USB interface 93 and a PCB board 94 . The housing 90 is provided with a USB port for exposing the USB interface 93 . Both the LED light source 91 and the USB interface 93 are arranged on the same PCB board 94 . The two LED light sources 91 and the two light guide elements 92 together form the light-emitting structure of the vehicle-mounted USB interface. During operation, the direct light emitted by the two LED light sources 91 respectively injects into two light guides made of diffuse light guide material. The light guide element 92 conducts light to the light emitting surface 921 located around the USB interface 93 through the light guide element 92 to achieve a lighting effect, so as to light up the surrounding boundary of the USB port.

The existing vehicle-mounted USB interface light-emitting structure requires a large number of LEDs, has poor light-emitting uniformity, and has extremely low efficiency. Using the USB interface light-emitting structure that lights up one USB port as shown in Figure 2, two LEDs need to be placed on the upper and lower sides of the USB port respectively. For USB products with two USB ports, four LEDs need to be used. In order to achieve a uniform lighting effect.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a light guide element and a light-emitting structure of its USB interface, which have high light utilization efficiency, good light-emitting uniformity and high light-emitting efficiency.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a light guide element is provided, the light guide element includes a light guide element body and a plurality of light guide rings; the light guide element body is respectively connected with the plurality of light guide rings, and is used for the incident light beam emitted by a single light source. The light guide rings are respectively introduced into a plurality of light guide rings; the front end surface and the rear end surface of each light guide ring are respectively the light emitting surface and the pattern surface.

Further, the light guide element body includes a light incident surface and a total reflection surface; the light incident surface is used to receive the incident light beam emitted by the light source, the total reflection surface is a reflective curved surface with the center of the light source as the focus, and the total reflection surface is used to At least a part of the incident light beam entering the light guide element body by the light surface is reflected by total reflection.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a light-emitting structure for a USB interface is also provided, which includes a single light source and the above-mentioned light guide element; a plurality of light guide rings of the light guide element are used to surround a plurality of USB interfaces in a one-to-one correspondence, respectively. around.

After adopting the above-mentioned technical scheme, the present invention at least has the following advantages and characteristics:

1. The present invention realizes the lighting of multiple USB ports through a single light source, which greatly improves the utilization efficiency of light;

2. The patterned surface of the light guide ring can reflect the light to the light-emitting surface, ensuring the light-emitting direction, not only improving the light-emitting efficiency, but also making the emitted light more uniform;

3. By adopting the form of total reflection optics, the light can be gathered and transmitted to the light-emitting place, which improves the light-emitting efficiency.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of the overall structure of an existing vehicle-mounted USB interface device.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic diagram of a light-emitting structure of an existing vehicle-mounted USB interface.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram of a light-emitting structure of a USB interface according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows a schematic structural diagram of the light guide element according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 shows a schematic diagram of the light path of the light guide element according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

6 shows a schematic diagram of a light path of the total reflection structure of the light guide element according to the first embodiment of the present invention, wherein the total reflection structure includes spherical grooves.

FIG. 7 shows a schematic diagram of the light path of the total reflection structure of the light guide element according to the second embodiment of the present invention, wherein the total reflection structure does not include spherical grooves.

FIG. 8 shows a schematic diagram of a light-emitting structure of a USB interface according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed ways

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.

See Figures 3 to 6. The USB interface light-emitting structure according to the first embodiment of the present invention includes a light source 1 and a light guide element 2 .

In this embodiment, the number of light sources 1 is one, and the light sources 1 are LED light sources.

The light guide element 2 includes a light guide element body 2a and a plurality of light guide rings 2b. The light guide element bodies 2a are respectively connected with the plurality of light guide rings 2b, and are used for guiding the incident light beams emitted by the light source 1 into the plurality of light guide rings 2b respectively. The plurality of light guide rings 2b are used to surround the periphery of the plurality of USB ports in a one-to-one correspondence.

The light guide element 2 may be a part formed by a high molecular polymer, or a part formed by an optical glass. Preferably, the material of the light guide element body 2a is a transparent material, and the material of each light guide ring 2b is a diffusing material. In this embodiment, the light guide element body 2a is made of PC transparent material, and each light guide ring 2b is made of PC diffuse material. The light guide element body 2a and the plurality of light guide rings 2b are integrally formed by two-color injection molding.

In this embodiment, the shape of each light guide ring 2b is a rectangular ring with rounded corners, which can improve the aesthetics, and can further reduce the loss of light when it propagates therein, thereby improving the light extraction efficiency. The shape of the light guide ring 2b can be adjusted according to actual needs, and is not limited to a rounded rectangular ring, but also a circular ring, a square ring or other irregular shaped rings.

The front end surface 201 and the rear end surface 202 of each light guide ring 2b are respectively a light exit surface and a pattern surface, and the pattern surface is used to reflect at least a part of the light incident into the light guide ring 2b to the light exit surface. A pattern is arranged on the rear end surface opposite to the light-emitting surface, and the main irradiation direction of the light can be adjusted so that most of the light is irradiated along the direction of the light-emitting surface. Compared with arranging the pattern on the side perpendicular to the light emitting surface, the pattern is arranged on the rear end surface opposite to the light emitting surface, and the light emitting efficiency can be increased by about 50% under the same conditions. In addition, since the rear end face 202 is flat, it is easier to process the pattern on the flat surface, and the processing cost is lower.

The pattern of the pattern surface is mainly used to change the direction of light. In this embodiment, the pattern of the pattern surface is a lattice pattern, and the lattice pattern has the advantages of uniform light output, easy processing, and low cost. In other embodiments, the lattice pattern may be replaced with other forms of micropatterns.

In the example shown in the figure, the number of light guide rings 2 b is two, and the light guide element body 2 a includes a light guide base 21 and two light guide columns 22 . The bottom ends of the two light guide columns 22 are respectively connected to the light guide base 21 , and the two light guide rings 2 b are respectively connected to the top ends of the two light guide columns 22 .

The light guide base 21 includes a total reflection structure, a first V-shaped reflection surface 213 , a first reflection surface 214 and a second reflection surface 215 . The total reflection structure is used to totally reflect at least a part of the incident light beam of the light source 1 into the light guide base 21 to form the parallel light 3 a and reflect the parallel light 3 a to the first V-shaped reflecting surface 213 . The first V-shaped reflecting surface 213 is used to reflect the parallel light rays 3a from the total reflection structure to two sides, respectively, to form a first path of parallel light 3b and a second path of parallel light 3c with opposite propagation directions. The first reflection surface 214 and the second reflection surface 215 are respectively located on both sides of the first V-shaped reflection surface 213 for reflecting the first parallel light 3b and the second parallel light 3c into the two light guide columns 22 respectively. The two light guide columns 22 are used to respectively guide the first parallel light 3b and the second parallel light 3c to the two light guide rings 2b.

Preferably, a V-shaped groove 216 is provided at the intersection of each light guide ring 2b and the light guide element body 2a, and the two sides of the V-shaped groove 216 form a second V-shaped reflection The light incident from the light column 22 is reflected to two sides respectively to form two parallel lights entering the light guide ring 2b respectively. Entering the light guide ring in the form of parallel light, the path is single, which reduces the loss of light transmission. Since each parallel light only needs to propagate in half of the perimeter of the light guide ring 2b, the length of the propagation path is reduced and the uniformity of light output is improved.

Each light-guiding ring 2b changes the light-emitting direction through the dot-matrix pattern, and irradiates the light toward the USB port opened on the casing and used for exposing the USB interface, so as to achieve the lighting effect.

In the first embodiment, the total reflection structure includes a total reflection surface 211 and a spherical groove 212 disposed on the light incident surface 210 of the light guide base 21 . The total reflection surface 211 is a reflective curved surface with the center of the light source 1 as the focus, the spherical groove 212 is lower than the center of the light source 1 and takes the center of the light source 1 as the center of the sphere, and the depth H of the spherical groove 212 must satisfy 0<H<R , R is the radius of the spherical groove 212 , and R is less than the focal length of the above-mentioned reflective curved surface.

See Figure 6. The spherical groove 212 enables the incident light beam emitted by the light source 1 to enter the light guide element body 2 a along the normal direction of the bottom surface of the spherical groove, and partially enter the reflective curved surface 211 . Since the center of the spherical groove 212 is the center of the light source 1, the light will not be refracted after passing through the spherical groove 212. At this time, when the light reaches the reflective curved surface 211, it is still equivalent to a straight light emitted from the light source 1, and the focal point of the reflective curved surface 211 is the center of the light source 1 , so the light emitted after being reflected by the reflective curved surface 211 is parallel light, which is consistent with the direction of the path.

By setting the spherical groove and the total reflection surface to form parallel light, the light is continuously reflected as parallel light at the first V-shaped reflection surface, the first reflection surface and the second reflection surface, and the second V-shaped reflection surface, and the light of the light guide ring is emitted. The dot matrix pattern is set on the back of the surface, and the light guide ring is set as a rounded rectangular structure, so that the LED power can achieve the same brightness requirement with only 1/8 of the LED power of the traditional solution introduced in the background technology part of the specification of this application. In contrast, the efficiency is increased by about 32 times, the utilization of light is greatly improved, and the overall uniformity can reach more than 90%, which is more suitable for new energy vehicles that are sensitive to energy consumption.

In the first embodiment, the light guide base 21 is T-shaped, and the T-shaped light guide base 21 includes a vertical side portion 21a and a horizontal side portion 21b. The total reflection structure is disposed on one end of the vertical side portion 21a, and the other end of the vertical side portion 21a is connected to the first side of the horizontal side portion 21b. The first V-shaped reflecting surface 213 is composed of two side surfaces of a V-shaped groove provided on the second side of the lateral side portion 21b, and the second side of the lateral side portion 21b is opposite to the first side of the lateral side portion 21b. The first reflection surface 214 and the second reflection surface 215 are constituted by inclined surfaces respectively provided at both ends of the lateral side portion 21b. The bottom ends of the two light guide columns 22 are respectively connected with the top ends of the lateral side portions 21b.

The total reflection structure improves the light utilization efficiency of the light source. The purpose of disposing the spherical groove 212 in the total reflection structure is to reduce the refraction of light. Without the groove, the effect of total reflection can also be achieved, but the light utilization efficiency will be slightly reduced due to the deviation of the refraction. In the second embodiment of the present invention, the total reflection structure is not provided with spherical grooves. As shown in FIG. 7 , the light will be refracted after passing through the light incident surface 210 , and the light will be displaced. If the offset occurs, parallel light cannot be formed (but generally parallel light output can be formed), which is inconsistent with the path, and part of the light will be missed. By setting the spherical groove, the light extraction efficiency is increased by about 10%.

FIG. 8 shows a schematic diagram of a light-emitting structure of a USB interface according to a third embodiment of the present invention. The main difference between the third embodiment and the first embodiment is that the light guide element body 2a is arranged in a cylindrical light guide bar structure, and the light is guided to each light guide ring 2b through the light guide bars. Among them, the light guide element body 2a includes a main light bar 25 and a plurality of branch light guide bars 26; One end of the light guide bars 26 is connected to transmit the incident light beams to the plurality of branch light guide bars 26 respectively, and the other ends of the plurality of branch light guide bars 26 are respectively connected to the plurality of light guide rings 2b in a one-to-one correspondence.

In the traditional vehicle USB interface lighting structure, two USB ports need four LED light sources to light up, but the USB interface lighting structure using the embodiment of the present invention only needs one LED to light up, so the present invention improves the light utilization efficiency. The present invention is not only applicable to USB products with two USB ports, but also applicable to USB products with more USB ports. For products with more USB ports (such as three, four, etc.), simply increase the number of light guide rings and direct light to each light guide ring.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, provided that these modifications and variations of the present invention fall within the scope of the claims of the present invention and their equivalents, the present invention is also intended to include these modifications and variations.

Claims (18)

1. A light guide element, characterized in that the light guide element comprises a light guide element body and a plurality of light guide rings; The light guide element body is respectively connected with the plurality of light guide rings, and is used to respectively guide the incident light beams emitted by a single light source into the plurality of light guide rings; The front end surface and the rear end surface of each light guide ring are the light emitting surface and the pattern surface respectively. 2 . The light guide element according to claim 1 , wherein a V-shaped groove is provided at the intersection of each of the light guide rings and the light guide element body, and two sides of the V-shaped groove are used to The light incident from the light guide element body is reflected to two sides respectively to form two parallel lights entering the light guide ring respectively. 3 . The light guide element according to claim 1 , wherein the light guide element body is provided with a plurality of light guide columns, and the plurality of light guide rings are respectively connected to the top ends of the plurality of light guide columns. 4 . 4 . The light guide element according to claim 1 , wherein the shape of each light guide ring is a rounded rectangular ring. 5 . 5 . The light guide element according to claim 1 , wherein the material of the light guide element body is a transparent material, and the material of each of the light guide rings is a diffusing material. 6 . 6 . The light guide element according to claim 1 , wherein the material of the light guide element body is PC transparent material, and the material of each of the light guide rings is PC diffusion material; 6 . The light guide element body and the plurality of light guide rings are integrally formed by two-color injection molding. 7 . The light guide element according to claim 1 , wherein the pattern of the pattern surface is a lattice pattern. 8 . 8. The light guide element according to claim 1, wherein the single light source is a single LED light source. 9 . The light guide element according to claim 1 , wherein the light guide element body comprises a total reflection structure, and the total reflection structure is used for total reflection of at least a part of the incident light beam emitted by the single light source to obtain the light guide element. 10 . form parallel rays. 10 . The light guide element according to claim 1 , wherein the light guide element body comprises a light incident surface and a total reflection surface; the light incident surface is used for receiving the incident light beam emitted by the light source, and the light guide element body includes a light incident surface and a total reflection surface. 11 . The total reflection surface is a reflective curved surface with the center of the light source as the focus, and the total reflection surface is used to reflect at least a part of the incident light beam entering the light guide element body through the light incident surface in a total reflection manner . 11 . The light guide element according to claim 10 , wherein the light guide element comprises a spherical groove disposed on the light incident surface of the light guide element body, and the spherical groove is formed by the light source of the light source. 12 . The center is the center of the sphere, the depth H of the spherical groove must satisfy 0<H<R, R is the radius of the spherical groove, and R is less than the focal length of the reflective surface; the spherical groove is used to make the incident light emitted by the light source The light beam enters the light guide element body along the normal direction of the bottom surface of the spherical groove, and partially enters the reflective curved surface. 12. The light guide element according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the number of the light guide rings is two; The light guide element body includes a light guide base and two light guide columns; the bottom ends of the two light guide columns are respectively connected with the light guide base, and the two light guide rings are respectively connected with the two light guide columns. connected to the top The light guide base includes a total reflection structure, a first V-shaped reflection surface, a first reflection surface and a second reflection surface; the total reflection structure is used to inject the single light source into the incident light beam in the light guide base At least a part of it is reflected to the first V-shaped reflection surface in a total reflection manner; the first V-shaped reflection surface is used to reflect the light from the total reflection structure to both sides respectively, forming a first V-shaped reflection surface with opposite propagation directions. One parallel light and a second parallel light; the first reflecting surface and the second reflecting surface are respectively located on both sides of the first V-shaped reflecting surface, and are used to separate the first parallel light and The second parallel light is reflected into the two light guide columns; the two light guide columns are used to respectively conduct the first parallel light and the second parallel light to the two light guide rings. 13 . The light guide element according to claim 12 , wherein the total reflection structure comprises a total reflection surface, the total reflection surface is a reflective curved surface with the center of the light source as the focus, and the total reflection surface It is used to reflect at least a part of the incident light beam entering the light guide base to the first V-shaped reflecting surface in a total reflection manner. 14 . The light guide element according to claim 13 , wherein the total reflection structure comprises a spherical groove disposed on the light incident surface of the light guide base, and the spherical groove is centered on the light source. 15 . is the center of the sphere, the depth H of the spherical groove must satisfy 0<H<R, R is the radius of the spherical groove, and R is less than the focal length of the reflective surface; the spherical groove is used to make the incident light beam emitted by the light source The light guide base is incident along the normal direction of the bottom surface of the spherical groove, and partially incident on the reflective curved surface. 15. The light guide element according to claim 12, wherein the light guide base is T-shaped, and the T-shaped light guide base comprises a vertical side portion and a horizontal side portion; The total reflection structure is arranged on one end of the vertical side portion, and the other end of the vertical side portion is connected with the first side of the horizontal side portion; the first V-shaped reflection surface is arranged on the second side of the horizontal side portion. The two sides of the V-shaped groove are formed, and the second side is opposite to the first side; the first reflection surface and the second reflection surface are formed by inclined surfaces respectively arranged at both ends of the lateral edge; The bottom ends of the two light guide columns are respectively connected with the top ends of the lateral side portions. 16. The light guide element according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the light guide element body comprises a main light guide bar and a plurality of branch light guide bars; One end of the main light bar is used to receive the incident light beam emitted by the single light source, and the other ends of the main light bar are respectively connected with one end of the plurality of branch light guide bars, so as to conduct the incident light beams at most In each of the branch light guide bars, the other ends of the plurality of branch light guide bars are respectively connected to the plurality of light guide rings in a one-to-one correspondence. 17. A USB interface light-emitting structure, characterized by comprising a single light source and the light guide element according to any one of claims 1 to 16; The plurality of light guide rings of the light guide element are used to surround the periphery of the plurality of USB ports in a one-to-one correspondence. 18. The light-emitting structure of a USB interface according to claim 17, wherein the USB interface is a vehicle-mounted USB interface.

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