US Patent 8104939 LED headlamp system

A solid-state light source (10) comprising a plurality of LED units (12) arrayed to emit light generally about an axis (14). Each of the LED units (12) can comprise a number of LEDs, for example, up to five. They may all emit in a single color or multiple colors can be combined for a specific effect. A light transmissive light guide (16) is associated with the LED units (12) and has a plurality of input widows (18). Each LED unit (12) faces a respective input window (18) and each window (18) transversely intercepts the axis (14) and receives light from the LED units (12). The input windows (18) lead to a common output window (20) that is axially aligned with the input windows (18). The light guide (16) has smooth sidewalls (22) that extend between the input windows (18) and the output window (20).