Canatu discusses film heaters at DVN LiDAR

 

This year at DVN LiDAR, Canatu (Vantaa, Finland) showcased brand new demos and discussed the latest advancements in film heaters for LiDAR de-icing and de-fogging. During his presentation, CEO Juha Kokkonen, outlined the key benefits of Canatu LiDAR heaters and highlighted the company’s strong industry collaborations, increased manufacturing capacity, and product reliability.

The Canatu film heater has emerged as a key enabling technology for LiDAR, ensuring reliable sensor performance in harsh weather conditions. These entirely wire-free film heaters offer industry-leading optical performance with exceptional LiDAR transmittance and minimal scattering. They provide rapid, uniform, and power-efficient heating across the sensor cover, resolving common issues associated with traditional metallic wire heaters, such as thermal gradients, hotspots, and obstructed view. Canatu film heaters are compatible with automotive standard voltage ranges of 12 – 48V and all automotive LiDAR systems (900-1600 nm). They are 3D formable, in-mouldable, and automotive-grade reliable.

Canatu has forged partnerships with industry forerunners to advance its technology, products, and business. At DVN LiDAR, Juha Kokkonen highlighted the collaboration with Covestro, presenting a joint demo of injection moulded LiDAR sensor cover with an integrated film heater. He mentioned how Canatu led the way in Covestro’s benchmark for transparent heating technologies, outperforming all alternatives and achieving the highest scores across all critical parameters. Its exceptional laser transmission, heating performance, and processing ability set it apart.

Additionally, Kokkonen spoke about the collaboration with Webasto on integrating a film heater into their Roof Sensor Module for LiDAR and camera sensor de-icing and de-fogging. This joint pilot project resulted in the two companies being honoured as the winners of the Plug & Play Global Innovation Award during the Startup Autobahn EXPO2023 earlier in June.

Finally, Kokkonen discussed the strategic partnership with the Chinese automotive supplier, Minth, aiming to together offer optically transparent film heaters for the Chinese market and beyond.

Canatu film heaters have undergone rigorous testing to earn 3rd party validation for their reliability. Beyond Canatu’s in-house tests, an independent third-party party laboratory, accredited by a prominent Japanese OEM, has validated the product’s reliability. Canatu film heaters have passed the automotive industry’s standard 85°C/85% 2000-hour reliability tests, predicting product reliability that extends for up to 25 years of operation.

Canatu specialises in the supply of heater sensors rather than plain film, and has been mass-producing them for nearly a decade, having manufactured one million sensors already. The company has strong simulation and design expertise to customise its film heaters to precisely align with customer requirements. In response to the growing demand for the film heaters, they have made substantial investments in their manufacturing capabilities and increased production capacity, now capable of manufacturing one million heaters annually.

Caption: Canatu at DVN LiDAR (photo: Canatu)