Design of compact LED free-form optical system for aeronautical illumination

A type of runway centerline light is designed for the application of light-emitting diode (LED) aeronautical illumination. A total internal reflection collimating lens and an integrated prism are designed, respectively, to meet the intensity distribution of International Convention on Civil Aviation (ICAO) regulations. The principle of geometric optics is adopted to construct the free-form surfaces of a collimating lens, which is simple. Different variations are used in the process of free-form surface calculation. An integrated prism with a diffuser is used for uniformly diffusing rays and then decreasing the central maximum intensity to avoid glare. The structure of the optical system is compact. Computer simulation results show that an optical efficiency of 79.2% is achieved for a 1  mm×1  mm LED source. Tolerance analysis is carried out to determine tolerance limits of manufacture and installation errors. To verify the optical performance of the proposed runway centerline light, the practical illumination distribution is measured by using Cree XP-E2 LED, which can comply with ICAO regulations.