As automotive safety regulations in major global markets become increasingly stringent and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) progress towards L3 and beyond, the industry's demand for reliable perception in all-weather, all-scenario conditions has shifted from an "ideal goal" to a "safety baseline." Approximately 60% of global traffic accidents occur at night, with fatality rates significantly higher in adverse conditions like thick fog and smoke. This highlights a fundamental physical limitation of traditional perception systems centered on visible-light cameras and LiDAR: their reliance on ambient light or active signal emission makes them highly susceptible to interference from darkness, strong glare, and haze, leading to significant performance degradation or complete failure.

In this context, a perception technology based on a different physical principle is transitioning from a high-end feature to a safety essential: infrared thermal imaging. Unlike conventional optical sensors, infrared thermal imaging forms images by passively receiving the thermal radiation (wavelength 8-14μm) emitted by objects themselves. It operates completely independently of ambient light and possesses the unique advantages of penetrating smoke, fog, dust, and immunity to glare. This capability allows it to precisely fill the "critical blind spot" of traditional perception schemes under extreme operating conditions, providing irreplaceable and deterministic sensing for ADAS and automotive night vision.

I. Regulation & Value: From "Auxiliary Display" to "Core Safety Redundancy"

The primary driver for the large-scale adoption of infrared technology in vehicles is the clear direction set by global automotive safety regulations.

Regulatory Mandates: New Car Assessment Programs (NCAP) in major markets like the EU and China now mandate testing for Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) systems under night-time and adverse weather conditions (e.g., rain, fog). This directly defines that future intelligent driving must function reliably even when traditional sensors "fail."

Fundamental Value Shift: The role of infrared in vehicles has evolved from early "Night Vision Aid" displays (reliant on human interpretation) to a core perception sensor directly integrated into the ADAS decision and control chain. As demonstrated by production-ready solutions in the industry, infrared perception data can directly trigger AEB in low-light, dense fog, and other极限 scenarios. This marks a leap from "passive observation" to "active safety control," establishing infrared as an indispensable independent safety redundancy within the ADAS architecture.

II. Optical Challenges: Forging the "Keen Eye" for Automotive IR

The performance ceiling of an infrared thermal imaging system is largely determined by its front-end infrared optical lens. Designing these lenses for the stringent automotive environment presents three core challenges and corresponding technical solutions:

1. Extreme Temperature Variation & Thermal Defocus

Challenge: The automotive temperature range is extremely wide (-40°C to +105°C). Severe temperature swings can cause lens focal point drift, resulting in blurred images.

Optical Solution: Implementation of passive athermalization technology. By precisely combining special optical materials with different thermal properties (e.g., chalcogenide glass, germanium), automatic focal point compensation across the entire temperature range is achieved at the physical level. This ensures consistently clear images without the need for motorized focus adjustment, enhancing reliability.

2. Complex Light Interference & Image Quality

Challenge: Strong glare from oncoming headlights and sudden light changes (e.g., entering/exiting tunnels) can cause flare and ghosting. Infrared images inherently have lower contrast.

Optical Solution: Application of high-cutoff, broadband anti-reflection coatings. These coating systems enhance transmittance in the 8-14μm infrared band while deeply suppressing stray light from the visible and near-infrared spectra, improving the signal-to-noise ratio at the optical source. Combined with low-distortion optical design, this provides a high-quality image foundation for precise multi-sensor fusion and AI recognition.

3. Automotive-Grade Reliability & Cost

Challenge: Components must withstand 10-15 years of service life, enduring vibration, high humidity, salt spray, while also achieving cost control for mass-market adoption.

Optical Solution: Adoption of all-metal monolithic structures and permanent sealing processes (e.g., laser welding) to ensure mechanical stability and IP6K9K-level protection. Automated assembly and testing fixtures lay the groundwork for scalable, low-cost application while guaranteeing performance consistency.

III. Future Outlook: Collaborative Evolution and the Path to Ubiquity

The future of automotive infrared perception lies in deep collaboration with the vehicle system:

Optical-System Co-optimization: The trend is towards tightly coupled design of the infrared lens, detector, and AI processing chip. Customizing the optical system based on detector characteristics can optimize image contrast at critical spatial frequencies, directly improving AI detection rates for distant, weak targets (e.g., pedestrians at night).

Platformization & Cost Control: Developing a family of products with varying focal lengths and apertures based on a core optical module allows flexible adaptation to diverse scenarios like forward view and in-cabin monitoring. Simultaneously, exploring new processes like chalcogenide glass molding to replace some costly materials without compromising performance is key to driving adoption in mainstream vehicle models.

Conclusion & Corporate Profile

The ultimate goal of automotive intelligence is safety. Infrared thermal imaging technology, with its unique physical ability to see through darkness and obscurants, is becoming a cornerstone for building safety redundancy in high-level automated driving. As the critical component of this "thermal perception eye," the value of high-performance, highly reliable automotive-grade infrared optical lenses lies in this: they directly determine the reliability floor of the entire perception system under the most adverse conditions. From meeting mandatory regulatory tests to integrating into the perception architecture to enable active control, infrared technology is undergoing a historic transition from a "high-end option" to a "safety essential." Forging a pair of "eyes" that can be trusted in any environment for the intelligent vehicle is the core mission in advancing the era of all-weather safe mobility.

As a technology enterprise deeply rooted in the field of infrared optics, Wuhan CLEAR has always taken "conquering core technologies and empowering the optoelectronic industry" as its mission. We have consistently invested in R&D for infrared continuous zoom lenses — from algorithm optimization in optical design, to independent breakthroughs in ultra-high precision alignment and assembly processes, and the custom development of athermalization and miniaturization solutions. This has resulted in the formation of comprehensive core capabilities covering the entire "Design – Manufacturing – Testing" process chain.

Looking ahead, Wuhan CLEAR will continue to be driven by market demands, promoting the evolution of mid-wave infrared continuous zoom lens technology towards higher zoom ratios, more compact form factors, and more intelligent integration. We are committed to providing more competitive optical solutions for fields such as airborne systems, automotive applications, ground reconnaissance, and high-end industrial inspection, assisting our customers in building the next generation of high-performance infrared thermal imaging systems.