Low-beam and high-beam headlights
Advanced low and high-beam lighting for safe visibility and modern styling
Advanced headlights for enhanced road safety
Low- and high-beam headlamps deliver the core forward illumination needed for safe driving in low-light conditions. With rising expectations for brightness, efficiency, and design flexibility, high-performance light sources are more important than ever. ams OSRAM provides powerful LEDs, laser diodes, and optical solutions that enable precise, reliable, and durable low- and high-beam systems across all vehicle segments.
What are headlights?
Headlights – often referred to as headlamps – are the forward‑facing lamps on vehicles such as cars, trucks, motorcycles, trains, and aircraft. They typically consist of a low- beam and a high-beam (sometimes also called passing light and driving light), each with clearly defined regulatory requirements depending on the region. Traditional halogen and xenon lamps are increasingly being replaced by LED technology, which offers higher efficiency, longer lifetime, and greater design freedom. In some systems, the LED high-beam can be complemented by an auxiliary laser high-beam for extended range.
Technology overview: from halogen to laser headlamps
Older vehicles and certain regions still rely on halogen or xenon bulbs. For many of these lamp types, street legal LED retrofit solutions are available. Modern headlamp designs increasingly use:
- Heatsink-less LEDs for compact and cost efficient low and high beam solutions
- Matrix LEDs for adaptive driving beam (ADB) systems
- Laser-activated remote phosphor modules for extended high-beam range
Why are LEDs important for low-beam and high-beam?
The low-beam illuminates the area directly in front of the vehicle and must meet strict regulations on upward light to prevent glare. LEDs offer clear advantages over halogen and xenon: they are more energy efficient, last significantly longer, and enable smaller optical systems thanks to their compact light emitting surfaces. This allows slimmer, more distinctive headlamp designs and reduces overall system cost, especially when heat sinkless LED concepts are used.
Key benefits: high efficiency, long lifetime, compact optics, and cost effective thermal design.
The high-beam provides maximum brightness and long-range visibility and can be used whenever no other road users are affected. Modern systems can go beyond this limitation: pixelated LEDs enable glarefree high-beam by selectively shading specific areas, while laser assisted modules can further extend range depending on system design.
Enhancements: glare free high-beam with pixelated LEDs; extended range with laser-assisted modules.
FAQ: Below are some of the most common questions about low- and high-beam lighting
Both are part of a headlamp / headlight but have different regulatory requirements: A low-beam has strict requirements in terms of upwards light emission to avoid glare, while a high-beam is brighter and allows upwards light emission.
LEDs are more energy efficient and typically have much longer lifetimes than traditional lamps.
Heatsink-less LEDs are efficient LEDs which can be cooled with convection only, thus avoiding a more costly design with a larger size using a heatsink.
Especially highly efficient LEDs are well suited for battery electric vehicles to reduce the power consumption of the headlamps and thus improve the range of the vehicle.
An auxiliary laser high-beam is an addition to a high-beam with a laser-activated remote phosphor solution that allows roughly doubling the range of the high-beam (to about 600m) due to the high power-density of the laser.
特定产品
OSRAM OSLON™ Compact RM, KW CVLDM1.TK
OSRAM OSLON™ Black Flat X, KW HHL631.TK
OSRAM OSLON™ Compact PL, KW CELNM4.TK
OSRAM OSLON™ Compact PL, KW CWLNM4.TK
OSRAM OSLON™ Compact PL, KW2 CFLNM3.TK
OSRAM OSLON™ Compact PL, KW3 CGLNM3.TK