Report on the 9th International Forum on Automotive Lighting (IFAL2021) Conference

The 9th International Forum on Automotive Lighting (IFAL) which is jointly hosted by Institute for Electric Light Sources of Fudan University, China Illuminating Engineering Society Professional Committee of Transportation Lighting and Light Signal、Shanghai Motor Vehicle Inspection Certification and Tech Innovation Center Co., Ltd. and Fudan Lingang Industrialization & Innovation Platform is hosted both offline and online from June 17 to 18 successfully.

This June, the two-day IFAL set off a wave of automotive lighting technology exchange in Shanghai. With the theme of "Seeing and Sensing", IFAL follows the industry technology hotspots and deeply combines the current situation of the industry, discussing and analyzing from three dimensions of innovative scientific research, industrial technology and standards and regulations to build a high-end industry-academia-research exchange platform for industry technology communication.

As in previous years, this forum is still full of guests. Hundreds of experts, scholars, and practitioners from many countries such as China, the United States, Germany and other automotive lighting research institutions and standardization organizations and related multinational experts, as well as domestic and foreign automotive lighting manufacturing enterprises, testing organizations, etc. attended this forum.

According to incomplete statistics, a total of more than 410 guests attended the forum in person, including more than 150 enterprise representatives. In addition, more than 100 domestic and foreign guests participated in the forum through online live broadcast.

At the beginning of this forum, the founder of IFAL and Professor of Fudan University Lin Yandan presided over the opening ceremony and welcomed all leaders, guests and participants who came to Shanghai to join the 9th IFAL and released the IFAL opening video on behalf of the IFAL organizing committee.

The video reviewed IFAL’s nine-year development history and conveys IFAL’s unchanged mission and vision: to promote the academic research and technology in the field of automotive lighting and to build the number one international exchange platform for automotive lighting academic and technology in Asia.

Affected by the COVD-19 epidemic, some domestic and foreign guests were unable to attend the event in person, but they still sent videos to convey their blessings and hopes to IFAL. Those guests included Zhenglei LIU (President of the China Illuminating Engineering Society), Yi XUAN (communicating secretary of the National Technical Committee of Auto Standardization, Lamp and Lighting Sub-Technical Committee), Xiaoming ZHU (Director of the National Technical Committee of Auto Standardization, Lamp and Lighting Sub-Technical Committee), Valter Genone (Chairman of GTB), David Puglisi (Secretary General of GTB), Rainer Neumann ( Co-Chairman of GTB Strategy Group, Chairman of GTB WG-RCNC, Chairman of GTB WG-SVP), Wolfgang Huhn (Chairman of GTB Strategy Group), Johannes Reschke (Audi), Geoff Draper (expert of DVN and former President of GTB), Matha Paul-Henri (Volvo), Zhijun ZHENG (SVWSC), Professor Kefu Liu (Fudan University), Associate Professor Minchen Wei (Hong Kong Polytechnic University), Shengjun Liu and Tianhai Chang (HUAWEI), Jinlong AO (HASCO Vision), Guihua KE (KEBODA), Hossein Nafari (MIND), Jiahua QIN (Huazhong Auto Light), Xiangbing Li (DPCA), Xiaoqiang HUANG (DOMINANT), Junfei WU (OSRAM), Jiwu WU (Leadway Vision), Yunjun ZHANG (PULSE) and Weili BU (Secretary General of the National Technical Committee of Auto Standardization, Lamp and Lighting Sub-Technical Committee).

At the invitation of Prof. Yandan Lin, Bart P. Terburg, former chairman of SAE Lighting Systems Group and Joseph D. Jaklic, current chairman, delivered a keynote speech on "The SAE Lighting Systems Group-75 Years at the Forefront of Automotive Lighting Standards Development " and “Improved Vehicle Lighting Performance – an SAEI Industry Standards Update”. They introduced the contribution of SAE Lighting System Group in north American in the process of standardization, and summarized their latest progress in the automotive lighting standard.

There are 6 sessions under this IFAL, namely: “High Resolution Headlamps and Digital Light”, “Light Distribution, Human Factors and Optical Design”, “Power Consumption in Automotive Lighting”, “Projection and Display Technology for Driving”, “Road Illumination Devices and Systems Relative with IoT in Driving” and “Quality Control in Automotive Lighting”.

The first session is " High Resolution Headlamps and Digital Light", with 5 reports from Zhiping QIU (HASCO Vision), Yang LI (PULSE), Chun WANG (MIND), Xia LI (Osram), Xing TONG and Zheng ZHOU (ANSYS). Their topics respectively are “Vehicle Headlamp Lighting, Investigation on Technique Realization of Slim Vehicle Lamp”, “Analysis of High-resolution Vehicle Headlamp Development”, “Challenges & Opportunities for Thermal Management of High-resolution Headlamp”, “High-Resolution Active Pixel-LED for Forward Lighting and digital Light Communication” and “Solutions in the High-resolution Pixels Headlights”.

The second session is " High Resolution Headlamps and Digital Light", with 4 reports from Stephan FRITSCH (HELLA), Haoyu GUO (SVWSC), Jianmin WANG (Tongji University), Yiyu CAO (ams). Their topics respectively are “Contour and Flat Illumination - Slim Light System & Freeform Micro Optics”, “Design and Application of Automotive Logo Lamp”, “Research on eHMI Interaction Design and Simulation” and “Color Analysis on the Edges of MLA Projected Pattern”.

The third session is “Power Consumption in Automotive Lighting”, with 3 reports from Paul-Henri MATHA (Volvo), Andy ZHANG (Covestro), Xiangbing LI (Dongfeng Peugeot and Citroen Automobile Co., Ltd.). Their topics respectively are “Lighting and Power Consumptions--Stakes for Car Makers”, “Mono-material Headlamp Concept”, and “Research on White-light Led Driver Design Based on PWM Dimming Mode”.

The fourth session is “Projection and Display Technology for Driving”, with 3 reports from Christopher WEIRICH (Fudan University), Lili LIU (HELLA), Li SONG (Everfine). Their topics respectively are “A new basis: Users' preferences in in-vehicle lighting”, “Freeform Micro-optics for Automotive Applications”, and “Optical Characteristics and Test Methods of Intelligent Automotive Lighting”.

The fifth session is “Road Illumination Devices and Systems Relative with IoT in Driving”, with 5 reports from Jin XIE (DOMINANT), Zhuoqun DAI (Institute of Product Development, Leibniz University Hannover), Liang DENG (Xingyu), Jun HAN (Lynway Vision), Dirk MEYER (Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen). Their topics respectively are “Applications of Innovative 2520 Series in RCL and Car Body Lighting”, “Lidars for Vehicles: From the Requirements to the Design Catalog”, “Night Target Detection Method Based on Image Fusion”, “Circadian Lighting System Research in Autonomous Driving” and “Virtual Reality Analysis of the Effect on Traffic Partners Being Confronted with Intelligent Beam Pattern Driver Information”.

The final session is “Quality Control in Automotive Lighting”, with 6 reports from Wolfgang HUHN (GTB), Alfonso Orozco López (MIND), Jiaying LI (Hasco Vision), Jian HUANG (Fulllight), Meixiang LI (Xingyu), Ming ZHANG (Guibao). Their topics respectively are “The Future of ADB system”, “Full Laser Lighting System Introduction”, “OLED Technology Application in Rearlamp”, “The Whole-process Control Method of Light Color Quality of Automobile Intelligent Lighting”, “Study on Anti-Fogging Performance of Transparent Conductive Coating Based on Nano-Silver and its Application on Automotive Lights” and “Development and Application of Low Fogging Values Silicone Sealant”.

After the completion of each session, there was a Q&A part. The audience asked their questions and opinions to the speakers. The speakers also answered one by one, and had more in-depth exchanges with the participants. The atmosphere at the scene was very warm.

Outside the venue, the IFAL Organizing Committee set up a guest interview session and invited industry experts and scholars to discuss industry hotspot issues and discuss technological development.

At the end of the forum, Prof. Lin, the founder, and the chief coordinator of IFAL, on behalf of the International Organizing Committee, released the hot topics in the field of automotive lighting in 2022. She focuses on explaining the key technological opportunities and challenges of human-computer integration and intelligence in the future automotive lighting and sensing, and the contribution of academic research to innovative technologies. The analysis of hot research topics every year provides a new and scientific research direction for the staff from all walks of life, industry, academia, and research, and leads the development of automotive lighting. At the same time, information on the holding time and seminar topics of the IFAL Forum in 2022 was announced.

Finally, Ziwei Shen, VLB-CAAM Secretary General, delivered a closing speech for the conference. He said that in the past few years, the global epidemic has brought challenges to the entire industry. IFAL has also faced many new challenges, but IFAL's determination to build a leading-edge technology exchange platform for automotive lighting remains unchanged. On behalf of the organizing committee, he would like to extend his sincerest gratitude to all the guests and visitors who came to support IFAL this year, and also wish IFAL to maintain its original intention in the future industrial structure, and actively devote itself to the leading of cutting-edge technology and domestic and foreign exchange platforms. The construction work will bring more updated development directions for the development of the entire industry.

Professor Lin Yandan and the members of the organizing committee took the stage to express thanks and declared the successful conclusion of the 9th IFAL.

Highlights of the conference

Welcome to the 2022 China International Automotive Lighting Forum

（IFAL2022）