The International Symposium on Automotive Lighting 2019 will take place from September 23 to 25 in Darmstadt, Germany. Inova Semiconductors, a member of the ISELED Alliance, is going to present its innovative solutions for automotive lighting with a focus on interior lighting during the event.

Inova will exhibit the first available products and applications based on ISELED technology. A "Carbox" demonstrator illustrates the interaction between dynamic light and image content, opening up new possibilities for driver assistance and infotainment systems. A matrix light demo based on the digital ISELED LEDs will be presented as well as "digital LEDs" from various manufacturers, standalone drivers and development kits (ADK) for a simple, flexible and rapid ISELED design implementation.

(Image: Inova Semiconductor)

The ISELED concept

The ISELED concept integrates a dedicated microcontroller together with LEDs in a highly compact package. The ILaS (ISELED Light and Sensor) network will expand the capabilities of the current ISELED protocol so that not only LEDs, but also sensors and actuators in almost any number and combination can be controlled in the future.

The controller contains the correction data for the individual color LEDs, thus eliminating the time-consuming 'binning' required up to now. Binning is a process by which LEDs are sorted according to their slightly different manufacturing properties in order to avoid visible differences in color and brightness in the application. This aspect is becoming ever more important with the increasing number of LEDs in vehicles that require the use of uniform LED components.

ISELED can also be used to readjust the LEDs, taking into account the temperature variation and ageing during operation. The correction data are determined by the manufacturer during the final test of the RGB LED and stored directly on the controller chip. The digital RGB LEDs can thus be operated with an optimized protocol without the previous overhead. A further boost for ISELED technology comes from automated/autonomous driving, where, in addition to displays, light will increasingly be used to transmit information and warnings.

ISELED Alliance is an open industrial alliance with the objective of developing a comprehensive ecosystem based on ISELED technology. Until August 2019, there are 23 companies/institutions supporting ISELED technology within the alliance. The spectrum ranges from semiconductor manufacturers and lighting/design specialists to major Tier 1 automotive suppliers. This covers the entire value chain in order to establish ISELED as a standard solution.