HEATING COVER FOR A LIDAR SENSOR AND A MANUFACTURING METHOD THEREOF

Abstract

A heating cover for a LiDAR sensor includes a plastic cover layer and a heating film attached to a back surface of the plastic cover layer. In the heating film, an indium tin oxide (ITO) thin film layer is formed on a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film. Respective line electrodes are arranged along both long sides on the ITO thin film layer.

Claims

1. A heating cover for a Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensor, the heating cover comprising: a plastic cover layer; and a heating film attached to a back surface of the plastic cover layer, wherein the heating film is a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film on which an indium tin oxide (ITO) thin film layer is formed, and wherein respective line electrodes are arranged along both long sides on the ITO thin film layer.

2. The heating cover of claim 1, wherein the line electrodes in a pair are arranged in parallel.

3. The heating cover of claim 2, wherein a sheet resistance of the ITO thin film layer has a range of 50 to 70 Ω.

4. The heating cover of claim 3, wherein the transmittance of the ITO thin film layer is at least 70% at 905 ± 60 nm.

5. The heating cover of claim 3, wherein the line electrode has a thickness of 15 to 20 .Math.m.

6. The heating cover of claim 2, wherein the ITO thin film layer is divided in a direction parallel to a short side thereof.

7. The heating cover of claim 6, wherein the ITO thin film layer is divided into four or more regions.

8. The heating cover of claim 7, wherein the ITO thin film layer is divided into five regions.

9. The heating cover of claim 2, further comprising a first low-reflective layer coated on a front surface of the plastic cover layer.

10. The heating cover of claim 9, further comprising a second low-reflective layer coated on a back surface of the PET film.

11. The heating cover of claim 10, wherein each of the first low-reflective layer and the second low-reflective layer is a multilayer film composed of a ZrO2 thin film layer and a SiO2 thin film layer.

12. A method of manufacturing a heating cover for a Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensor, the method comprising: forming an indium tin oxide (ITO) thin film layer on a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film to prepare a heating film; and attaching the heating film to a back surface of a plastic cover layer, wherein respective line electrodes are arranged along both long sides on the ITO thin film layer.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the line electrodes in a pair are arranged in parallel.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the line electrodes in a pair are arranged in parallel.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the ITO thin film layer is divided in a direction parallel to a short side thereof.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising: forming a first low-reflective layer on a front surface of the plastic cover layer; and forming a second low-reflective layer on a back surface of the PET film.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0036] FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate a hot line of a conventional cover;

[0037] FIG. 3 illustrates a hot line pattern according to the present disclosure;

[0038] FIGS. 4 and 5 schematically illustrate a heating cover for a Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensor according to a first embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0039] FIG. 6 schematically illustrates a heating cover for a LiDAR sensor according to a first comparative example;

[0040] FIGS. 7 and 8 schematically illustrate a heating cover for a LiDAR sensor according to a second embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0041] FIG. 9 schematically illustrates a heating cover for a LiDAR sensor according to a second comparative example;

[0042] FIGS. 10 and 11 schematically illustrate a heating cover for a LiDAR sensor according to a third embodiment;

[0043] FIG. 12 schematically illustrates a heating cover for a LiDAR sensor according to a third comparative example;

[0044] FIG. 13 schematically illustrates a heating cover for a LiDAR sensor according to a third embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0045] FIGS. 14 and 15 illustrate the transmittance when a heating cover for a LiDAR sensor according to the third embodiment of the present disclosure is applied.

[0046] FIG. 16 illustrates a comparison of heating performances according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0047] FIG. 17 illustrates an infrared photographed image according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure; and

[0048] FIG. 18 illustrates the temperature for each point in FIG. 17.

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS

[0049] In order to fully understand objectives, operations, and effects and advantages of the present disclosure, reference should be made to the accompanying drawings illustrating embodiments of the present disclosure and the contents described in the accompanying drawings.

[0050] In describing embodiments of the present disclosure, a description about known techniques or a repetitive description that may unnecessarily obscure the gist of the present disclosure have been shortened or omitted.

[0051] The present disclosure is directed to a heating cover mounted on a front surface of a housing of a Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensor that transmits and receives light for autonomous driving. An indium tin oxide (ITO) metal oxide is bonded to a back surface of a plastic cover layer and a line electrode is formed on the ITO thin film layer.

[0052] The ITO metal oxide can transmit light in the vicinity of the near-infrared light of 905 nm, which is the actual available wavelength of a LiDAR. For the application to the present disclosure, the heating cover needs to include a material having a transmittance of at least 70% or more in a wavelength band of 905 nm ± 30. In this regard, instead of ITO, a fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) can also be applied to the present disclosure. However, when using the ‘deposition’ technique with these materials, these materials cannot be used due to the deviation of deposition in planar and curved designs. Therefore, a method is proposed in which such materials are predeposited on a film and the material-deposited film is attached to a cover (flat/curved surface.

[0053] In addition, for the application to the present disclosure, the deposited material layer needs to at least have a sheet resistance of 70 Ω or less and, in the present disclosure, includes an ITO film of about 50 to 70 Ω.

[0054] For this, the ITO film preferably has a thickness of 60 to 80 nm, and a transmittance of 76 to 78%.

[0055] At the same time, the transmittance needs to have 70% or more. The reason why the sheet resistance is limited to 70 Ω or less is because of the ‘heating temperature’. If the sheet resistance exceeds 70 Ω, the heating temperature cannot reach 50° C. within 2 minutes. For use in a hot line for a LiDAR, a material needs to reach 50° C. or higher within 3 minutes on the basis of 12 V vehicle power application.

[0056] If the transmittance is less than 70%, a signal at a distance of 200 meters or more from the LiDAR sensor cannot be detected.

[0057] As described above, for the optical performance, the near-infrared transmission performance varies depending on the deposition thickness (sheet resistance) of the ITO (the transmittance of 83% is secured at the sheet resistance of 50 Ω). For the heating performance, the heating area and temperature vary depending on the deposition thickness of ITO and the structure of the Ag wire.

[0058] The present disclosure employs the configuration in which the Ag paste is formed in linear wiring on the ITO film as in FIG. 3 to obtain the surface heating effect, instead of the conventional electrode arrangement, in consideration of the heating area and temperature. It is confirmed that such a configuration can be applied to the present disclosure due to the surface heating effect.

[0059] In other words, it was confirmed that the electric field effect induced between the Ag wire electrodes was maximum, and it is desirable that the two wires are arranged in parallel without being connected to each other. Otherwise, local heating due to the local electric field will occur.

[0060] FIGS. 4 and 5 schematically illustrate a heating cover for a LiDAR sensor according to a first embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 6 schematically illustrates a heating cover for a LiDAR sensor according to a first comparative example.

[0061] Hereinafter, the heating cover for a LiDAR sensor according to the first embodiment is described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5.

[0062] The present disclosure is characterized in that a pair of line electrodes 131 and 132, which are parallel to each other, is arranged on an upper surface of an ITO thin film layer 120 having a rectangular planar shape, as illustrated in the drawings, along both long sides thereof.

[0063] A pair of Ag paste electrodes function as (+) and (-) electrodes and, as the conductivity increases, an electric field value applied to the ITO thin film layer 120 surface increases.

[0064] The line electrode may have a thickness of 15 to 20 .Math.m, a sheet resistance of 50 mΩ/m.sup.2, and a line width of 2,000 .Math.m.

[0065] FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate a case where, though the power input terminal structures are different. it was confirmed that there is no difference in the heating feature due to the difference in the power input terminal structures and that the heating temperature decreases as the distance from a power supply increases. In the case of the example of FIG. 4, the heating temperature was 48.8° C., and in the case of the example of FIG. 5, the heating temperature was 48.7° C.

[0066] As illustrated in FIG. 6 in which a line electrode 230 of the Ag paste electrode has a vertical structure parallel to a short side thereof, it could be confirmed that the heating temperature showed 31.5° C., showing degraded heating performance due to the low electric field (V/m) in the ITO thin film layer 120 surface.

[0067] Next, FIGS. 7 and 8 schematically illustrate a heating cover for a LiDAR sensor according to a second embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0068] Further, FIGS. 10 and 11 schematically illustrate a heating cover for a LiDAR sensor according to a third embodiment, verifying a change in the electric field distribution according to the division of the ITO deposition surface.

[0069] The ITO thin film layer is evenly divided parallel to a short side thereof. As a result of the verification, the division into 4 or more regions showed excellent heating performance while the division into 3 or less regions showed the deteriorated heating performance due to non-uniform heating by a voltage drop relative to the case where the division does not occur. As illustrated in FIGS. 7 and 8, the division of the ITO thin film layer 220 into 5 regions showed the best heating performance.

[0070] In the case of division into 4 or more regions, as is farther away from an electrode contact, the deteriorated heating due to a voltage loss is improved and the highest temperature region moves to the center.

[0071] In addition, when the deposition thickness was thick, the maximum and average increase occurred in the heating temperature. In one example, the thickness has a sheet resistance of 70 Ω or more.

[0072] The division into 5 regions in FIG. 7 showed the heating temperature of 49.2° C., and the division into 5 regions in FIG. 8 showed the heating temperature of 49.4° C., thereby exhibiting excellent heating performance.

[0073] In addition, division of an ITO thin film layer 320 into 2 regions in FIG. 10 showed the heating temperature of 45.9° C., and the division into 2 regions in FIG. 11 showed the heating temperature of 45.7° C., and thus excellent heating performance was exhibited.

[0074] FIG. 9 schematically illustrates a heating cover for a LiDAR sensor according to a second comparative example. FIG. 12 schematically illustrates a heating cover for a LiDAR sensor according to a third comparative example.

[0075] The second comparative example is a case in which the ITO thin film layer 220 is divided into 5 regions, line electrodes 331 are separately connected to the divided ITO regions, respectively, and the heating temperature is reduced to 40.0° C. (local heating). In addition, the third comparative example is a case in which the ITO thin film layer 320 is divided into two regions, line electrodes 332 are separately connected to the divided ITO regions, respectively, and the heating temperature is reduced to 41.5° C.

[0076] In other words, it is desirable that a line electrode is connected without division.

[0077] Next, FIG. 13 schematically illustrates a heating cover for a LiDAR sensor according to a third embodiment of the present disclosure. FIGS. 14 and 15 illustrate the transmittance when the heating cover for a LiDAR sensor according to the third embodiment is applied.

[0078] When a heating film composed of an ITO thin film layer 120 and a line electrode 131 is attached to a plastic cover layer 110 according to the present disclosure, a decrease in near-infrared transmittance may occur due to differences in refractive index, interfacial reflection, etc. for each material.

[0079] Accordingly, the third embodiment of the present disclosure allows the transmittance to be further increased by applying a low-reflective coating to the heating cover.

[0080] As illustrated in FIG. 13, a first low-reflective layer 141 is coated on a front surface of the plastic cover layer PC 110 and a second low-reflective layer 142 is formed on a transparent electrode film. Thus, the greatest rising effect in transmittance can be expected as confirmed in FIGS. 14 and 15.

[0081] In other words, the first low-reflective layer 141 is coated on the front surface of the plastic cover layer PC 110, an ITO thin film layer 120 with a line electrode 131 is attached to a back surface of the plastic cover layer 110 by an adhesive (Optically Clear Adhesive, OCA), and the second low-reflective layer 142 is coated on the back surface of a heating film to which a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film is attached to the back surface of the ITO thin film layer 120.

[0082] To summarize the manufacturing method of the heating cover for a LiDAR sensor according to the present disclosure as described above, first, an ITO with a line electrode is laminated on a PET film to form an ITO thin film layer, and such a heating film is applied to a back surface of a plastic cover layer PC.

[0083] After the injection-molded product plasma treatment and heat treatment, the first low-reflective layer 141 and the second low-reflective layer 142 are coated thereon.

[0084] The low-reflective layer may be, for example, a multilayer film of ZrO.sub.2 and SiO.sub.2.

[0085] As described above, as compared to the existing heating wire made of only Ag paste, according to the heating cover of the present disclosure, the heating performance was greatly improved as illustrated in FIG. 16 (46° C. .fwdarw. 57° C. within 2 minutes), and the temperature deviation was also greatly reduced (16° C. .fwdarw. 3° C.).

[0086] In addition, as can be seen in FIGS. 17 and 18, the area through which near-infrared light can be transmitted is greatly increased. Thus, there is a great advantage in that the heating cover can be applied to a high-resolution spot-emitting LiDAR and a surface-emitting solid state LiDAR such as a flash type LiDAR.

[0087] While the inventive concept of the present disclosure as described above has been illustrated with reference to the drawings, the present disclosure is not limited to the described embodiments. It should be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that various modifications and variations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, such modifications or variations should be considered to belong to the claims of the present disclosure, and the scope of the present disclosure should be construed based on the appended claims.