High-Performance Heating Camera Module for Autonomous Vehicles
LG Innotek has successfully developed the High-performance Heating Camera Module for autonomous vehicles.
The Heating Camera is a product made by mounting a heater on an Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) camera.
When frost forms on the automotive lens or when it collects snow, it fails to detect obstacles around the vehicle, which may lead to serious accidents. The camera heats up the bottom of the lens to consume less power (up to 4 W) while quickly eliminating snow and frost, ensuring sharp images at all times.
In a test conducted at an extremely low temperature of -18°C, the camera restored the resolution of a frozen lens to room temperature in four minutes. Products currently available take eight minutes on average to eliminate frost in the same environment.
The most important feature is that it uses Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) materials, which reduce the amount of current when the temperature rises above a certain point and maintain the temperature in the appropriate range. Due to this, LG Innotek was able to mount a heater at the bottom of the lens, optimizing the quick removal of snow and frost.
Most products available in the market use heat conductors instead of PTC materials. Unlike PTC materials, heat conductors can't self-regulate temperature, requiring users to install a temperature-controlling circuit on the camera module to prevent overheating. This makes the camera module bigger, and customers experience inconvenience due to the change in camera design.
Some brands that use heat conductors have released a heater component that can be installed on top of the camera module to minimize the trouble of changing the product design. In this case, however, the heater indirectly heats the entire camera module. This not only takes longer than direct heating but also consumes more power due to higher heat loss.
This allowed LG Innotek to compensate for the shortcomings of the existing products and increased freedom in design by integrating the lens and the heater into a single module. The size of the camera module is about the same as the existing module because the PTC heater is inserted into a space inside the camera module and the power sources for the camera and the heater are integrated into one.
Customers can replace the product in the same location where the existing camera module was mounted without the need to change the camera design.
The High-Performance Heating Camera Modules are expected to start production in 2027.
LG Innotek USA, Inc.
San Jose, CA
(408) 955-0318
[email protected]
lginnotek.com
