Nonimaging optical illumination system

Claim 1

A method of manufacturing a collector of light of irradiance I from a radiant source, comprising the steps of: providing a transducer device for collecting the light; and providing a light reflecting surface by constructing a reflector contour with a family of edge rays defined along a reference line defined by k(t) and forming a shape for said reflector contour relative to said reference line by tracing a vector R(t) to form said shape where t is a scalar parameter position and wherein: R(t)=k(t)+Du(t) where k(t)=a parameterization of said reference line; D=a distance from a point on said reference line to said reflecting surface along a desired edge ray through the point; n=unit vector along a desired direction of said desired edge ray; with said reflector contour reflecting said desired edge ray into actual edge ray a(R(t)), where a is a multidimensional unit vector pointing towards an edge of said radiant light, and said D being the solutions of: dD/dt=((dk(t)/dt)·(a-u)+D(du/dt)·a)/1-a·u 2.

Claim 2

A method of manufacturing a collector of light of irradiance I from a radiant source, comprising the steps of: providing a transducer device for collecting the light; and providing a light reflecting surface by constructing a reflector contour with a family of edge rays defined along a reference line defined by k(t) and forming a shape for said reflector contour relative to said reference line by tracing a vector R(t) to form said shape where t is a scalar parameter position and wherein: R(t)=k(t)+Du(t) where k(t)=a parameterization of said reference line; D=a distance from a point on said reference line to said reflecting surface along a desired edge ray through the point; n=unit vector along a desired direction of said desired edge ray; with said reflector contour reflecting said desired edge ray into actual edge ray a(R(t)), where a is a multidimensional unit vector pointing towards an edge of said radiant light, and said D being the solutions of: dD/dt=((dk(t)/dt)·(a-u)+D(du/dt)·a)/1-a·u 2.

Claim 13

A method of collecting light of irradiance I from a radiant source over an angular range, comprising the steps of: collecting light from the source using a transducer means; and defining light means for manipulating light received from the source using at least one of the steps (a) using light refracting medium means and (b) using a light reflector contour having a reflective surface established by the step of defining a family of edge rays relative to a reference line expressed as k(t) and a point located on said reference line and further defined by a desired edge ray passing through the point and extending to said reflector contour, wherein t is a scalar parameter position and defining said reflector contour by applying an expression R(t): R(t)=k(t)+Du(t) where k(t)=a parameterization of said reference line; D=a distance from the point on said reference line to at least one of said refracting medium means and said reflecting surface along said desired edge ray through the point; u=a unit vector along a desired direction of said desired edge ray; and said reflector contour and said light refracting medium means reflecting and refracting, respectively, said desired edge ray into an actual edge ray a R(t)), where a is a multidimensional unit vector pointing towards an edge of said transducer means and wherein the desired edge ray is tailored into the actual edge ray by at least one of said reflector contour and said retracting medium means.

Claim 14

A method of collecting light of irradiance I from a radiant source over an angular range, comprising the steps of: collecting light from the source using a transducer means; and defining light means for manipulating light received from the source using at least one of the steps (a) using light refracting medium means and (b) using a light reflector contour having a reflective surface established by the step of defining a family of edge rays relative to a reference line expressed as k(t) and a point located on said reference line and further defined by a desired edge ray passing through the point and extending to said reflector contour, wherein t is a scalar parameter position and defining said reflector contour by applying an expression R(t): R(t)=k(t)+Du(t) where k(t)=a parameterization of said reference line; D=a distance from the point on said reference line to at least one of said refracting medium means and said reflecting surface along said desired edge ray through the point; u=a unit vector along a desired direction of said desired edge ray; and said reflector contour and said light refracting medium means reflecting and refracting, respectively, said desired edge ray into an actual edge ray a R(t)), where a is a multidimensional unit vector pointing towards an edge of said transducer means and wherein the desired edge ray is tailored into the actual edge ray by at least one of said reflector contour and said retracting medium means.