Core technical advantages (compared to traditional sensing solutions)

Non-cooled infrared thermal imaging sensors have superior perception capabilities in extreme visual-limiting environments such as low temperatures, thick smoke, and darkness, which are beyond the reach of traditional visible light cameras and lidar. According to the 2025 Q3 report of the Chinese Optical and Electronic Industry Association, the mainstream non-cooled infrared sensors cover a detection wavelength range of 8-14 μm (mid-long wave infrared), capable of capturing temperature differences ranging from -40°C to 1500°C, with a temperature resolution (NETD) as low as 20 mK, an improvement of 60% compared to the previous generation (50 mK), and can clearly identify temperature variations of 0.1°C; their frame rate is 60 fps, the same as that of visible light cameras, and is not affected by lighting conditions, with a detection distance of up to 500 meters in complete darkness, which is 1.4 times that of lidar (decreased by 30% in dark environments). Moreover, the non-cooled solution does not require liquid nitrogen, Stirling refrigerators, etc., for low-temperature cooling, reducing the volume by 75% and the power consumption to only 1/10 of the cooling-type infrared sensors (≤200 mW), making it more suitable for low-power portable and vehicle scenarios.

Key material and fabrication breakthroughs

A certain domestic research institute announced a breakthrough in the modification of vanadium oxide (VOx) thermosensitive materials in Q2 2025: Through the magnetron sputtering process to control the film grain size (within 50-80 nm), and introducing tungsten (W) doping to optimize the lattice structure, the resistance temperature coefficient (TCR) of the thermosensitive material was increased to -3.5%/K, an improvement of 59% compared to traditional VOx materials (-2.2%/K), significantly enhancing the temperature detection sensitivity of the sensor, and the related results were published in "Infrared Technology". At the same time, a certain German semiconductor enterprise developed the "wafer-level vacuum packaging integrated process", reducing the packaging gap between the sensor chip and the readout circuit (ROIC) to 5 μm, compared to the traditional packaging (20 μm), reducing by 75% the heat conduction loss, and reducing the performance attenuation of the sensor in a -40°C low-temperature environment from 15% to 3%. This process increased the yield of a 1280×1024 resolution infrared sensor from 68% to 91%, and reduced the unit cost by 38%.

Industry application scenarios implementation

In the field of new energy vehicles, non-cooled infrared sensors have become the core supplementary sensing component for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), and vehicles equipped with this sensor can identify pedestrians and obstacles 1.2 seconds in advance in scenarios such as heavy rain, thick fog, and darkness, reducing the collision risk by 45% compared to vehicles relying solely on visible light cameras. A certain automaker launched high-end models in the first half of 2025, all of which are equipped with this sensor, and the extreme environment pass rate of the ADAS system has increased from 72% to 95%. In the industrial inspection field, this sensor can achieve online thermal imaging monitoring of power equipment (transformers, cable joints), accurately locating abnormal hotspots of 0.1°C, and advancing the equipment failure warning time by 72 hours. After being applied by a certain power group, the unplanned downtime rate of the equipment has decreased by 60%. In the fire rescue scenario, the portable infrared thermal imager can penetrate thick smoke to identify trapped personnel, with a detection distance of up to 100 meters, an increase of 233% compared to traditional rescue equipment (30-meter detection distance), and data from a certain fire equipment enterprise shows that with this equipment, rescue efficiency has increased by 50%, and the survival rate of trapped personnel has increased by 28%.

Existing technical and market challenges

Core materials and high-end chips still have technical bottlenecks: Currently, the core equipment for preparing high-performance VOx thermosensitive films (magnetron sputtering coating machine) has a domestic self-sufficiency rate of only 30%, and key components rely on imports, resulting in a material cost accounting for 42%. From a technical perspective, the uniformity control of pixels in high-resolution sensors (with a resolution of 1280×1024 or higher) is extremely challenging. The response difference between edge pixels and center pixels can reach 8%, which is higher than the industry target value (below 5%). This requires complex digital calibration algorithms for correction, increasing the cost of post-processing. In the market, the global production capacity of non-cooled infrared sensors is concentrated in three overseas enterprises. By the third quarter of 2025, the domestic market supply-demand gap reached 20%. The delivery cycle for vehicle-grade sensors is as long as 18 weeks, which has increased the procurement costs for downstream automotive manufacturers. Moreover, in high-temperature and high-humidity environments (85℃/85% RH), the packaging and sealing of sensors are prone to failure, reducing their lifespan by 40%, which limits their long-term application in marine exploration and tropical outdoor equipment scenarios.