Project: Ground breaking Wide Dynamic Range and multispectral InGaAs camera engine for automotive and industry market sectors.

The White Paper on EU Transport Policy for 2010 states a key objective: 50% reduction of casualties due to road accidents by the end of 2010. Improvements on road safety are achievable increasing the EU market penetration of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), currently limited by performance and cost of sensor technologies._x000D_Cost has traditionally been a limitation to the world diffusion of laser welding stations on the factory floor: the development of new systems and accessories able to control the process quality and reduce the production scraps and all manufacturing costs may make that technology competitive in respect to the conventional welding technologies worldwide diffused._x000D__x000D_According to EUREKA-EUROSTARS programme, ClearView addresses marketed-oriented research challenges, in the areas of vehicle accident prevention and enhancement of process quality control, with the active participation of four R&D-performing SMEs. ClearView project aims at providing solutions to the former needs through the development of a cost effective breakthrough multifunctional and multispectral wide dynamic range SWIR camera. _x000D__x000D_In the automotive field it aims at a predictive detection of the road status (dry, wet, iced) on the full lane and at enhanced capability of seeing through all but the most severe conditions (rain, fog, mist, night). The proposed sensor will allow to warn the driver before approaching slippery road, to dynamically preset the systems devoted to the vehicle stability (ESP, ASR) by estimating the road friction coefficient, and to warn the driver at night._x000D_The novel camera is also aimed at improving the process quality monitoring for industrial laser technologies. In particular it will be pursued an enhanced view in welding pool monitoring and slag detection, a better detection of defects (material dependent, geometrical, …) in laser welding processes of metallic and plastic materials, a higher performance in surface cleanness monitoring before laser welding process (water and oil detection)_x000D__x000D_The novel camera engine will be based on a near infrared sensor which will combine a low light detection capable InGaAs detector array, working within the 900nm-1550nm spectral bandwidth, and an original wide dynamic range CMOS readout circuit. The underneath wide dynamic range CMOS ROIC will bring more than 120dB of intra-scene dynamic range. Such dynamic range can not only cover most of the lighting conditions experienced in automotive scenarios but also the required dynamic range needed in laser welding industrial processes. _x000D_Under the ClearView project the Ps will design the camera engine based on a specific InGaAs photosensitive layer hybridized to a dedicated CMOS ASIC. The design focus will be put on low manufacturing cost, easy system integration and compatibility with today’s automotive industry cost and performance requirements. _x000D__x000D_The targeted cost-effective products of ClearView project are: _x000D_• Full spectrum and wide dynamic range SWIR camera with huge potential market such as automotive, industrial, medical, scientific, food, etc._x000D_• Filtered and wide dynamic range SWIR camera enabling multifunctional and multispectral approaches in automotive road status monitoring and in laser welding quality control._x000D_• Plastic lenses for large spectrum working in SWIR bandwidth suitable for mass production._x000D__x000D_The consortium is composed of two industrial research centers (ATL and CRF) together with four R&D-performing SMEs (RPL, NIT, OPT and RTM). This consortium is widely geographically represented with Ps coming from France, Italy and United Kingdom. All team members have the proper experience and managerial expertise in large international projects and consortia. The project team consists of people having long standing experience in automotive, laser systems for industrial productions, CMOS readout circuit, near infrared sensor design, optics and high performance, cost effective camera design. _x000D__x000D_ClearView beneficiates of a perfect match of Ps playing a key role in the development of the camera engine without having commercial conflicts: ROIC design (NIT), 2D InGaAs FPA design (ATL), SWIR optics design (OPT), camera design (RPL) to automotive (CRF) and industrial (RTM) companies for integration._x000D__x000D_Furthermore, the Pship is in an excellent position to effectively exploit the results obtained in the project. The supply chain is completely represented within the consortium for the industrial, scientific, security and surveillance markets. In the industrialisation phase (two years after the end of the project) of the automotive products a Pship will be envisaged between RPL and a Tier-2 / Tier-1 to entering the strict and high-volume automotive market_x000D__x000D_

Acronym ClearView (Reference Number: 4828)
Duration 01/09/2009 - 31/08/2011
Project Topic ClearView project aims at developing a novel & cost-effective SWIR camera for road status monitoring, enhanced night vision and laser welding quality control. It will combine a new low light level Wide Dynamic Range InGaAs sensor with driving electronic, selective optical filters and plastic optics.
Network Eurostars
Call Eurostars Cut-Off 2

Project partner

Number Name Role Country
6 Alcatel-Thales III-V lab Partner France
6 Centro Ricerche Fiat S.C.p.A. Partner Italy
6 Istituto per le Ricerche di Tecnologia Meccanica e per l'Automazione SpA - R.T.M. SpA Partner Italy
6 New Imaging Technologies Partner France
6 OPTEC Partner Italy
6 Raptor Photonics Ltd Coordinator United Kingdom