Investigation on the Material Failure in a Small Scale Automotive Camera Module via Root Cause Analysis and Experimental Validation

Automotive camera modules are critical components for vision, detection, and recognition in an advanced driver assistance system. They usually consist of housing, a lens, a lens holder, a harness, seals, and printed circuit boards, which are assembled through screws, adhesive, and connectors. Due to a small and complex geometry of the components, the component material failure is a critical issue. In this paper, the lens holder material failure is investigated using the root cause analysis and experimental validation. First, a fishbone diagram model is created to analyze the potential causes and an action checklist is employed to identify the root cause. Second, the structure of the lens holder is optimized according to the finite-element analysis result. The numerical results show that the strength of the optimized lens holder is improved by nearly 35%. Finally, the torque test is carried out to validate the optimized structure experimentally. The presented analysis and validation procedure can be used to solve material failure issues for small-scale automotive components effectively.