Printed Electronics to Enhance both Exteriors and Interiors in EVs

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The drive towards weight reduction and more connectivity in EVs and autonomous vehicles opens up potential for more printed electronics in automotive.

www.eetimes.eu, Aug. 03, 2021 – 

Printed and flexible electronics have more opportunities than one might immediately assume for automotive exteriors in electric vehicles (EVs), especially for things like transparent heaters for sensors and integrated antennas enabling vehicle connectivity.

As I wrote recently, reducing weight is a key goal for electric vehicle (EV) hypercars, and this is no different as we go to mainstream consumer EVs. A recent report from IDTechEx highlights the benefits of printed/flexible electronics for achieving this goal on vehicle exteriors, for integration of transparent heaters to solar panels, resulting from attributes as varied as transparency, conformality, low weight, and tunable absorption spectra.

Keeping cameras clear with transparent heaters

Cameras and LiDAR in autonomous vehicles or advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) will always require a clear view of the road. This means ensuring that a transparent cover over the sensor is free of mist/frost is essential. While simple, this requirement is significantly more challenging in an electric vehicle since there is far less residual heat generated than with a conventional combustion engine. A similar argument applies to LED headlights – since they are much more efficient than halogen bulbs insufficient waste heat is generated to melt ice on the headlight covers.

The solution to this challenge is to develop transparent heaters. This can be achieved by embedding printed metal wiring via in-mold electronics (IME), or by using transparent conductors such as silver nanowires, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), or metal mesh. Over time these technologies are likely to fall in price, enabling them to be applied to windows as well, making scraping ice off car windows a thing of the past.

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