Illuminating innovations
The Lighting Technology Laboratory at Furtwangen University gives students access to teaching and research in the fields of optics, lighting and illumination technology.
We are one of the few universities in Germany to work at the interface between lighting technology and medical technology. Students have the opportunity to deepen the theoretical content of lectures through practical teaching in the lighting technology laboratory. Medical applications of LED light sources are an increasingly important focus.
The research and development of innovative lighting solutions in cooperation with industrial partners is a central component of the course. Flexible lighting systems are developed in the lighting technology laboratory through the interaction of measurement technology and optical simulation.
Teaching areas
- Photometry of LEDs: Proof of the photometric distance law
- Locally resolved luminance measurement of LED- and OLED-based lighting systems
- Measuring the light distribution curve and spectral properties of luminaires using a goniophotometer and spectrometer
- Luminous flux measurements of light sources and luminaires in the integrating sphere
- Determination of the reflectance and transmittance of optically relevant materials
- Measurement of the scattering properties (BSDF: Bidirectional Scattering Distribution Functions) of materials on the scatterometer
Main areas of research
- Development of luminaires for indoor and outdoor applications and feasibility studies
- Development of optical components (reflectors, lenses and diffusers) for lighting systems using optical simulations
- Development and optimisation of backlighting systems, including with LED light sources in the visible and UV-A/B range
- Optimisation of lighting units in medical devices (endoscopes and surgical lights), taking into account the melanopic effect of light
Lab equipment
“The work beyond the light switch”
![[Translate to English:] Scatterometer](https://www.hs-furtwangen.de/fileadmin/_processed_/b/9/csm_csm_Scatterometer_b3e4fb8ca0_84b05a56a4.jpg)
A visit to the Lighting Technology Laboratory at Furtwangen University
For most people a "laboratory" is a rather sterile, white room where people work with small glass flasks and beakers. The Lighting Technology Lab at Furtwangen University is the exact opposite. Two stories underground, with black walls and a ceiling covered with black fabric, here it looks more like they carry out research on darkness. "We need this to eliminate all sources of light," explains Alexander Gärtner, who is currently writing his doctoral thesis on lighting technology and who is fascinated by the possibilities of his field. He demonstrates, for example, how light can be measured in the "large integrating sphere." The terms "light" or "lighter" take on a whole new meaning here and light measurement presents some surprises for the layman. How is light distributed in a room? What color is a light, and what effect does it have? Just how important such questions are becomes apparent when Gärtner talks about surgical procedures. It makes a huge difference whether the lighting is required to improve the contrast between different layers of tissue - or is required to illuminate the entire operating theatre. "There is no one optimal light," says Gärtner, "because it always depends on why you need the light." He, himself can proudly claim to have optimised the lighting functions of endoscopes during his research.
The various aspects of light are reflected in the many instruments used to measure it. A "scatterometer," for example, measures the scattering properties of materials. "That's important when I want to develop the material for the reflectors of a light source," says Gärtner, taking the silver housing of the fluorescent tube on the ceiling as an example. "Luminance" can also be measured, even the non-visible but biological effects of light, and much more. The Lighting Technology Laboratory, part of the Faculty of Mechanical and Medical Engineering on the university campus in Schwenningen, is headed by Prof. Dr. Paola Belloni. Teaching and research is conducted at the interface between lighting technology and medical technology. In cooperation with industry lighting systems are also developed and feasibility studies carried out, which explains the wide range of research projects in the laboratory: the head of a street lamp, a light for an operating theatre, testing equipment to examine the efficiency of LED light sources... But the real work begins after switching on the light, after measuring the light itself. "There‘s a lot of maths behind it," says Prof. Belloni, pointing out the many computer graphics and evaluation programs in the lab. "We are always surrounded by light," she concludes enthusiastically. “That's why it's so exciting to find out more about it.”
