High transparent light guiding plate for single-sided light emission

The paper demonstrates a novel light guiding plate (LGP) mainly for illumination purposes with two special features: (1) Light emission is basically single-sided. (2) The device has a high transparency in the sense that clear, distortion free vision perpendicular through the plate is provided due to the flat microstructures responsible for the homogeneous and planar light emission. Using ray tracing simulations cylindrical microstructures with planar top covers have been identified to fulfil perfectly the above mentioned requirements. Experimental demonstration of single-sided light emitting LGPs could be performed by implementing cylindrical microstructures with 50 mu m and 100 mu m diameter and a pitch-diameter ratio of 3:1. Replication technology using thick photolithographic moulds (Ordyl FP450) and PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane) casting has been applied to produce first prototypes. The ray tracing simulation predictions could be confirmed by optical measurements very well. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.