Aging Test for Vehicle Cameras

In the era of intelligence, automobiles have emerged as another major smart terminal race after smartphones. Vehicle cameras, as the eyes of automobiles, play a crucial role in sensing the external environment. They provide essential information for the actions of both the vehicle and the driver. Vehicle cameras include five main types: interior, rearview, front view, side view, and surround view cameras. With the rapid development of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), vehicle cameras play an irreplaceable role in intelligent driving systems.

In autonomous vehicles, vehicle cameras serve as the primary means of collecting information and analyzing images. They facilitate tasks such as vehicle and pedestrian recognition, lane detection, and more. Besides capturing the road ahead, vehicle cameras must process video streams to calculate the positions of other vehicles, read traffic signs, differentiate between streetlights and headlights, detect taillights, and identify lanes. These cameras must perform flawlessly under challenging driving conditions and speeds, ensuring safety until the end of the vehicle's lifespan.

Due to their critical role in safety and exposure to harsh environments, vehicle cameras require higher durability, resistance to magnetic interference, shock resistance, dust and waterproofing, and longer lifespan compared to smartphone cameras. They undergo rigorous testing, including several days of water pressure testing and 1000 hours of temperature cycling—from 85°C to -40°C within seconds.

As vehicle cameras directly impact safety and reliability, aging tests are crucial steps to ensure their quality. Commonly, vehicle cameras use FAKRA interfaces, and popular encoding/decoding chips include GMSL2, GMSL3, FPD-LINK, etc. Aging tests often require an extended duration, necessitating special equipment to simultaneously connect numerous vehicle cameras and perform specific function, voltage, and current tests to analyze their performance. For example, aging test fixtures for Low-Power SerDes (LPSS) vehicle cameras.