Self-cleaning sensor surface

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10363326-B2
Application number	US-201715647795-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 12, 2017
Priority date	Jul 12, 2017
Publication date	Jul 30, 2019
Grant date	Jul 30, 2019

Abstract

A computing device in a vehicle can be programmed to activate a self-cleaning glass surface by irradiating the self-cleaning glass surface with LED ultraviolet radiation based on a determined energy of external ultraviolet radiation and a schedule. The computing device can activate a self-cleaning glass surface by irradiating the self-cleaning glass surface with LED ultraviolet radiation based on determining an optical state of the self-cleaning glass.

First claim

We claim:

1. A computer apparatus, programmed to:
activate a self-cleaning glass surface by irradiating the self-cleaning glass surface with UV LED radiation based on a determined energy of environmental UV radiation and a schedule.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the UV LED radiation is further based on a determined optical state of the self-cleaning glass.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , further comprising: determining an optical state of the self-cleaning glass by determining an IR reflectance of the self-cleaning glass.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the UV LED radiation includes a wavelength 365 nanometers.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , further comprising: irradiate the self-cleaning glass surface with UV LED radiation having energy of greater than 1 W/cm 2 .

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising: determining the schedule based on expected environmental ultraviolet radiation.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising: determining external UV radiation energy based on W*sec/cm 2 of UV energy on the self-cleaning glass per time period.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the self-cleaning glass is coated with an optical UV coating.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the schedule includes less than ½ hour of UV LED radiation.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the less than ½ hour of UV LED radiation activates the self-cleaning glass surface for at least 2 to 5 hours.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Dellock Paul Kenneth
• Salter Stuart C
• Lobo Harry
• Krishnan Venkatesh
• Buttolo Pietro

Classifications

• A61L2103/00

  Materials or objects being the target of disinfection or sterilisation · CPC title

• B60S1/66

  for cleaning vehicle exterior · CPC title

• A61L2/10 Primary

  Ultraviolet [UV] radiation · CPC title

• B60Q1/0023

  the element being a sensor, e.g. distance sensor, camera · CPC title

• A61L2/26

  Accessories · CPC title