Significant interest in high intensity discharge headlamps (HID) has been developing in the past few years. It evolved as a safety device in the high-end luxury automobile segments, and is now showing demand for applications in other vehicle lines as well. However, affordability of these systems has been a continuous problem for all vehicle lines. A headlamp system that consists of: a remotely located light collector integrated to an HID source and ballast, a pair of light cables and distribution optics at the output of the light cables is being presented as a low cost alternative to HID headlamps. It also offers significant reductions in vehicle power consumption and radically new styling options. Five different concepts for light distribution optics will be discussed along with their performance compared to conventional HID and halogen headlamps.
