The following lamps are known: U.S. Pat. No. 8,354,781 (Tessnow); U.S. Pat. No. 7,110,656 (Coushaine); U.S. Pat. No. 7,995,882 (Wanninger); U.S. Pat. No. 8,104,939 (Coushaine); U.S. Pat. No. 7,753,540 (Swantner); U.S. Pat. No. 6,796,698 (Sommers); U.S. Pat. No. 6,991,355 (Coushaine); U.S. Pat. No. 6,871,988 (Gebauer); U.S. Pat. No. 7,341,365 (Basile); U.S. Pat. No. 7,762,700 (Luo); U.S. Pat. No. 8,398,283 (Lambert); U.S. Pat. No. 7,111,972 (Coushaine); U.S. Pat. No. 7,275,839 (Coushaine); and U.S. Pat. No. 6,357,902 (Horowitz); U.S. published Appln. US 2013/0051005 (Markell); 2013/0044503 (Mihara); 2009/0034283 (Albright); 2007/0070645 (Coushaine); 2002/0136027 (Hansler); 2010/0208488 (Luo); 2010/0142194 (Masuda); 2001/0015899 (Kondo); 2012/0250343 (Koizumi); and International Appln. WO 2010/079436 (Boonekamp) and EP 2 159 477 (Hirano).
It is also known in an automotive combination LED tail and signal lamp, believed to be commercially available in the United States, to have a yellow LED positioned within a turn function reflector cavity and the heat sink for the yellow LED attached to the backside of the turn signal reflector; and in such lamp, the red stop LED light is positioned in the focal point of a stop reflector cavity behind the turn signal reflector. A transparent connecting member extending between the red LED/heat sink component and yellow LED/heat sink component positions the yellow LED and its heat sink in front of the red LED, allowing emitted red light to pass through the connecting member. The heat sink of the stop function is located on the rear of the stop reflector. In such arrangement the heat sinks are all located within the Rear Combination Lamp (RCL) housing. The applicants herein were the ones to recognize that in such lamp a heat sink size is limited by the RCL housing, that the heat sink for the yellow turn lamp could cause shadow problems with the red tail lamp, that air flow was not promoted to the outside for cooling the LEDs, and that electrical connection to the yellow turn LED intrudes into the emitted red stop light to cast a shadow.
For a thorough understanding of the present disclosure, reference should be made to the following detailed description, including the appended claims, in connection with the above-described drawings. Although the present disclosure is described in connection with exemplary embodiments, the disclosure is not intended to be limited to the specific forms set forth herein. It is understood that various omissions and substitutions of equivalents are contemplated as circumstances may suggest or render expedient. Also, it should be understood that the phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
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USPTO Backgrounds