JP2010146824A - Solar simulator - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a solar simulator capable of avoiding degradation of quality that has been considered a conventional problem. <P>SOLUTION: The solar simulator (1) is equipped with a lamp (11) for having a light similar to sunlight irradiated; a light control disk (30), which permits transmission of light and performs light control of the light; a lens (14) which receives the light, after light control and makes it parallel light; and a reflecting plate (15), which receives the parallel light and reflects it toward an object. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a solar simulator.

Conventional dimming reduces the amount of light emitted by reducing the power and current applied to the lamp. If dimming by reducing the electric power or current applied to the lamp, the spectral distribution will change, so there is a problem that the quality as a solar simulator is lowered. Similarly, as shown in Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-102665) described later, since the positive column becomes thin, the arc fluctuation increases due to the rare gas convection in the lamp, the light ripple increases, and the quality as a solar simulator decreases. There is a problem.
JP-A-11-102665

  An object of the present invention is to provide a solar simulator capable of avoiding the above-described degradation of quality, which is a conventional problem.

(Characteristics of the invention described in claim 1)
The invention according to claim 1 relates to a solar simulator, a lamp that irradiates light similar to sunlight, a light control plate that allows light of the lamp to pass and performs light control on the light, It is characterized by comprising a lens for receiving the modulated light and making it parallel light, and a reflecting plate for receiving the parallel light and reflecting it toward the object.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, the light approximate to the sunlight irradiated from the lamp is dimmed by passing the light through the dimming plate, more specifically, the light quantity is adjusted and dimmed. By making the light pass through the lens to be parallel light, it is possible to obtain light having parallel, average and uniform surface illuminance, that is, pseudo-sunlight having almost no change in spectral distribution. This light can be reflected toward the object by the reflector. As a result, the solar simulator can be hardly deteriorated compared to the conventional one.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described.

  The lamp 11 is a lamp that converts electric energy into light. The lamp 11 in this example uses a discharge lamp in which a rare gas such as xenon and two electrodes 11p and 11n are sealed with quartz glass. When electric energy is applied between the two electrodes 11p and 11n, an arc discharge is generated between the two electrodes 11p and 11n, and light approximating the spectrum of sunlight is emitted to the surroundings. The amount of light emitted from the lamp 11 is proportional to the energy of electricity applied between the two electrodes 11p and 11n. In other words, the amount of light increases if more electric energy is added, and the amount of light decreases if electric energy is reduced. The lamp 11 is installed on the focal axis of a condenser mirror 12 described later.

  The condensing mirror 12 has a function of condensing the light emitted by the lamp 11 around itself and guiding it to the lens 14 shown in FIG. The condensing mirror 12 in this example has a hemispherical outer shape, and is made of glass in which an optical reflecting material is deposited on the inner surface of the sphere. The condenser mirror 12 is installed at a position where the lens 14 is irradiated with the condensed radiation light 13. The emitted light 13 is light emitted from the lamp 11 and collected by the condenser mirror 12.

  The lens 14 has a function of optically adjusting incident radiation 13 and guiding it to a reflector 15 described later. There are two specific examples of optical alignment. As shown in FIG. 1, the first arrangement is that the radiated light 13 is incident on the lens 14 in an inverted conical shape with an incident angle, and the light having the incident angle is converted into parallel light. Secondly, the radiated light 13 is transformed into the shape of the slit 34 when entering the lens 14 through the slit 34 of the dimming disk 30 described later. This deformed shape is adjusted to a uniform surface illuminance on average and guided to the reflector 15. The lens 14 is made of an optical material called, for example, a rod lens or a fly eye lens.

  The reflecting plate 15 has a function of guiding light emitted from the lens 14 with parallel and average uniform surface illuminance to an object not shown in FIG. The reflecting plate 15 in this example has a flat outer shape and is made of glass in which an optical reflecting material is vapor-deposited on a surface irradiated with light.

  The adjustment light 16 is emitted from the lamp 11, collected by the condenser mirror 12, the amount of light is adjusted by the dimming disk 30, the shutter is opened and closed by the shutter disk 40, and the lens 14 is optically arranged. The light is guided to the object by the reflector 15.

  The light control disc 30 has a function of performing light control by reducing the emitted light 13. The light control disk 30 exists between the condensing mirror 12 and the lens 14, and the radiated light 13 passes through it. The amount of the radiated light 13 is reduced by the wide and narrow slits 34 carved into the disk. The dimming disk 30 in this example has a shape obtained by processing a slit 34 in a metal disk.

  The dimming motor 31 has a function of rotating the dimming disk 30 in the direction AR1 or AR2 in FIG. The dimming motor 31 is driven by a motor driver (not shown) controlled by a 1 chip CPU (not shown). A dimming disk 30 and an initial position detection disk 32 are attached to the rotating shaft of the dimming motor 31, and both the disks 30, 32 rotate by the same rotation angle by the rotation of the rotating shaft. The dimming motor 31 in this example is a motor called a pulse motor or a stepping motor, and rotates at a rotation direction determined by an electric signal applied by a motor driver controlled by the 1chip CPU and a predetermined rotation angle. To do. That is, the light control disk 31 and the initial position detection disk 32 are interlocked with the determined rotation direction and the determined rotation angle by the light control motor 31.

  The initial position detection disc 32 has a function of detecting the initial position of the rotating shaft of the light control motor 31 in cooperation with the light control sensor 33 described later. The initial position detection disc 32 is attached to the rotating shaft of the light control motor 31 and interlocks with the rotation of the rotating shaft. As shown in FIG. 3, the initial position detection disc 32 has a “cut” formed on the outer periphery of the disc, and this “cut” passes through the light control sensor 33 by rotation, thereby adjusting the light. The initial position of the rotating shaft of the motor 31 is detected.

  The light control sensor 33 has a function of detecting the initial position of the rotating shaft of the light control motor 31 in cooperation with the initial position detection disc 32. The dimming sensor 33 in this example has a concave outer shape, makes an ON-OFF signal based on whether or not light passes between the concaves, and notifies the 1chip CPU described later of the ON-OFF signal. The dimming sensor 33 detects when a “cut” on the outer periphery of the initial position detection disc 32 comes to the concave position of the dimming sensor 33 due to the rotation of the dimming motor 31.

  The slit 34 has a function of adjusting light by reducing the emitted light 13 and guiding it to the lens 14. The slit 34 in this example is a hole processed into the light control disc 30 as shown in FIG. 2, and the shape of the slit 34 increases or decreases depending on the rotation angle of the disc. That is, when the radiated light 13 passes through the slit 34, the way in which the amount of light is reduced changes depending on which part it passes.

  The shutter disk 40 performs a shutter function by passing or shielding the radiated light 13. The shutter disk 40 exists between the condenser mirror 12 and the lens 14, and the radiated light 13 passes through it. In the shutter disk 40 in this example, four openings 44 are processed at an angle of 90 degrees at a position overlapping the lens 14 on the circumference. The shutter disk 40 is attached to the rotation shaft of the shutter motor 41, and moves the opening 44 to a position overlapping the lens 14 by the rotation of the shutter motor 41.

  The shutter motor 41 has a function of rotating the shutter disk 40 in the AR3 direction in FIG. The shutter motor 41 is driven by a motor driver (not shown) controlled by the 1 chip CPU. A shutter disk 40 and an initial position detection disk 42 are attached to the rotation shaft of the shutter motor 41, and both the disks rotate by the same rotation angle by the rotation of the rotation shaft. The shutter motor 41 in this example is a motor called a pulse motor or a stepping motor, and rotates to a rotation angle determined by an electric signal applied by a motor driver controlled by the 1 chip CPU. That is, the shutter disk 41 and the initial position detection disk 42 are rotated to a predetermined rotation angle by the shutter motor 41.

  The initial position detection disc 42 has a function of detecting the initial position of the rotation shaft of the shutter motor 41 in cooperation with a shutter sensor 43 described later. The initial position detection disk 42 is attached to the rotation shaft of the shutter motor 41 and interlocks with the rotation of the rotation shaft. As shown in FIG. 3, the initial position detection disc 42 is processed with “cut” on the outer periphery of the disc, and this “cut” passes through the shutter sensor 43 by rotation, so that the shutter motor 41 Detect the initial position of the rotation axis.

  The shutter sensor 43 has a function of detecting the initial position of the rotation shaft of the shutter motor 41 in cooperation with the initial position detection disc 42. The shutter sensor 43 in this example has a concave outer shape, makes an ON-OFF signal based on whether or not light passes between the concaves, and notifies the 1chip CPU of the ON-OFF signal. When the shutter motor 41 rotates, the shutter sensor 43 detects a “cut” on the outer periphery of the initial position detection disc 42 at the concave position of the shutter sensor 43.

  The opening 44 performs a shutter function by passing the radiated light 13 and guiding it to the lens 14. The openings 44 in this example are four holes that are processed by the shutter disk 40 as shown in FIG. 2 and are 90 degrees apart, and the shape thereof is the same as or larger than the lens 14. The opening 44 is moved by the rotation of the shutter disk 40. When the opening 44 overlaps the lens 14, the shutter is opened, and when the opening 44 does not overlap, the shutter is closed.

  The 1chip CPU is an electronic component that includes a CPU that performs control and calculation inside, a ROM and RAM that store data, and an I / O port that performs input and output. The 1 chip CPU in this example stores a program for controlling the solar simulator 1 in the ROM, and the CPU reads and executes the program. At that time, the CPU develops a work area for control and calculation on the RAM.

  The lamp driver (not shown) is an electronic component that drives the lamp 11. The lamp 11 in this example is a discharge lamp in which a rare gas such as xenon and two electrodes 11p and 11n are sealed with quartz glass. The lamp driver generates a high voltage at the start of discharge in response to a lighting command from the 1chip CPU and applies it to the two electrodes 11p and 11n provided in the lamp 11. After the discharge is started, driving according to the electrical rating of the lamp 11 is performed and a signal indicating successful lighting is sent to the 1 chip CPU.

  A shutter switch, an UP switch, and a DOWN switch (not shown) are operation switches for giving instructions to the solar simulator 1 by a user, and when the switch is pressed, a signal indicating that “the switch has been pressed” is sent to the 1 chip CPU. . Each switch has the meaning of opening / closing of the shutter, UP of the light amount, and DOWN of the light amount. Each switch in this example is a push button switch.

  The motor driver drives the dimming motor 31, and the motor driver is an electrical component that drives the shutter motor 41. The motor driver drives the dimming motor 31 and the shutter motor 41 by a designated angle in the designated rotational direction under the control of the 1 chip CPU. A display driver (not shown) is an electrical component that drives a display device to be described later under the control of the 1 chip CPU.

  The display (not shown) is an electrical component having a function of displaying solar simulator information to the user. The display in this example uses a 7-segment LED display. The display is driven by a display driver and displays, for example, “lamp operating time”, “aperture value”, and the like to the user.

It is the figure which showed the mechanical mechanism and optical mechanism inside a solar simulator. It is the figure which looked at the structure of the solar simulator from the A side of FIG. It is the figure which looked at the structure of the solar simulator from the B side of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Solar simulator 11 Lamp 11p Anode 11n Cathode 12 Condensing mirror 13 Radiation light 14 Lens 15 Reflection plate 16 Adjustment light 30 Dimming disc 31 Dimming motor 32 Initial position detection disc 33 Dimming sensor 34 Slit 40 Shutter disc 41 Shutter motor 42 Initial position detection disc 43 Shutter sensor 44 Opening

Claims (1)

A lamp that emits light similar to sunlight;
A dimming disk for allowing the light of the lamp to pass and for dimming the light;
A lens to accept the dimmed light and make it a parallel light;
A reflective plate for receiving the parallel light and reflecting the parallel light toward an object;
This is a solar simulator.

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