ADB and light blanket become a new direction for car lights to be rolled in, and DLP chips usher in major opportunities

In Q4 of 2023, Wenjie M9 will be officially launched. This large SUV, priced from 469,800 to 569,800 yuan, leaves a deep impression on people with its headlights. Wenjie M9 provides a megapixel smart lighting system, combined with the precise fusion algorithm of dual lights , to bring innovative lighting functions such as AD B automatic masking and width display light blanket.

The naming of ADB is not controversial, but light blankets are called differently by many car companies, and are also called light curtains and light curtains. Moreover, these functions are no longer a feature of luxury cars, but have gradually been extended to mainstream models, becoming a new direction for car companies to innovate.

ADB and light blankets are popular

In terms of headlight configuration, Wenjie M9 headlights are composed of adaptive high beams, adaptive matrix headlights, megapixel smart projection headlights and intelligent interactive matrix headlights, and are equipped with through-type skyline position lights. , which can achieve lane-level precise control and accurate shading.

Adaptive high beam is also the ADB function, and its full name is AdaptiveDrivingBbeam. The popularity of ADB is inseparable from the advancement of regulations. In November 2021, the "U.S. Federal Infrastructure Act" was officially passed, and adaptive headlights were finally approved for use in the United States. Then it quickly became a hot technology around the world.

ADB headlights use sensor input to automatically adjust the brightness, angle and shape of the beam to respond to changing driving conditions. As an advanced lighting system, ADB is mainly composed of sensors, controllers , actuators and lighting units. Its main advantage is that it can automatically adjust the lights, reduce the visual blind spots of itself and the target vehicle, improve driving safety, and achieve energy conservation and emission reduction.

The main lighting system currently used by ADB is LED matrix headlights, so many car companies now make this combination standard. For example, the IQ.Light matrix headlights of the Volkswagen ID pure electric series, Buick's Matrix  Pixel matrix LED headlights, and the ADB smart multi-beam headlights of NIO ES6/ES8 are all the same. In comparison, matrix LED headlights achieve a better balance between performance and cost, and are currently the mainstream solution for implementing ADB.

In the more advanced ADB headlights, the digital light processing (DLP) chip is a key reflective component. With this component, the ADB headlights can divide more light areas and achieve better control. DLP technology realizes the ADB function through light source switching, and controls the headlights to the million-pixel level. Therefore, ADB headlights have a great impact on DLP chip usage.

DLP headlights are expected to take over from LED headlights

As mentioned just now, DLP can make the pixels of digital headlights reach millions, so this extends to functions such as light blankets and light curtains, which are actually intelligent projections of car lights. In addition to the Wenjie M9, let's look at the Zhiji L7. The car is equipped with DLP digital headlights with 1.3 million pixels on each side. It integrates a DMD digital microchip and a 3TOPS AI vision chip to support the rich interactive functions of smart car lights. For example, when there are pedestrians in front of the Zhiji L7 and it stops, the car lights will project two-way arrows in front of the road. At the same time, pedestrian prompts will appear on the displays under the headlight groups on both sides to remind pedestrians to pass first.

Therefore, it is not difficult to see that DLP technology based on DMD has become the mainstream solution for realizing the digital headlight projection function. In this system, DMD (digital micromirror device) is a  microelectromechanical system with electronic input and optical output . The DLP chip is composed of DMD, DMD controller, DMD micromirror driver , etc. The chipset can use pixels up to 60Gbps The data rate is high-speed and precise to control millions of lenses to achieve pixel-level projection of car lights. As this technology route gradually matures, the headlight system has formed an iterative route from AFS to ADB to DLP. As mentioned above, ADB based on DLP will be more advanced, significantly increasing the lighting partitions and increasing the number of pixels. Each headlight can have more than 1 million addressing pixels. Compared with matrix LED ADB increased ten thousand times. Why do car companies launch functions such as light curtains, light blankets, and projected zebra crossings? An important reason is that the pixels of DLP headlights far exceed the needs of car lights, so an innovative function is needed to utilize it to ensure driving safety. On the basis of further enhancing the information interaction function. In fact, car companies are now very skilled in the use of DLP headlights. For example, Gaohe's DLP headlight system can realize low-speed steering assistance, blind spot lane change warning, driving trajectory prediction, lane departure prompt, and pedestrian tracking prompt/pedestrian Guidance to give way, vehicle tracking and masking and other functions. Although Gaohe Automobile has encountered operational troubles, it must be said that its technology is still relatively advanced. A summary of R& D statistics found that currently including Wenjie M9, Land Rover Range Rover, Zhiji L7 , Gaohe HiPhi . In addition, Mercedes-Benz is also cooperating with TI to develop its own digitally programmable headlights. Although the DLP system has encountered challenges from LCD in the traditional projection market, it is expected to keep pace with Micro LED in the automotive lighting market. At present, TI is still the main supplier of DLP chips.

Conclusion

According to QYResearch data, the global automotive smart headlight market is expected to reach US$11.3 billion in 2027, with a CAGR of 5.4% from 2020 to 2027. In the fast-growing market, DLP chips are expected to win a big share of the pie with their high pixel advantages.