A key factor in the efficiency of fiber optic lighting systems is the collection efficiency of the lamp and fiber optic system. This efficiency is controlled by several factors: inherent efficiency of the lamp in lumens/watt; source size (i.e., arc gap or filament size); luminance of the source, which is related to the lamp efficiency and the source size; magnification of the reflector; numerical aperture of the fiber optic bundle; and size of the fiber optic bundle. We present the results of optical modeling and measurements on several light source reflector combinations, for a range of fiber optic bundle sizes, from 1.0 mm to 5.0 mm. Sources studied include metal halide lamps from 21 to 250 watts, 100 watt high pressure xenon, and 150 watt halogen lamps. Our results show that the arc gap, arc efficiency and reflector magnification are key in increasing the efficiency of coupling in small (<3.0 mm) bundles.
展开▼
