e-con Systems expects camera volumes to reach 600,000–700,000 units this year, approaching one million units.
e-con Systems is expanding its focus on automotive cameras after securing IATF 16949 certification, as demand for camera systems across ADAS, driver monitoring, and other vehicle applications grows.
The Chennai-based embedded camera company, which has been developing camera solutions for more than two decades, sees the certification as an important step towards supplying automotive OEMs at higher volumes. The company has traditionally focused on OEM embedded cameras for medical, industrial, robotics, and other applications rather than the automotive market.
IATF 16949 provides a quality-management framework relevant to applications in which cameras are increasingly becoming safety-critical. Maharajan said the certification could also help build customer confidence in the company’s ability to maintain consistent product quality as production volumes increase.
“We are not a significant player in the automotive market yet,” Maharajan Veerabahu, Co-Founder of e-con Systems, said during an interaction with Electronics For You. “But we are a very big player in the embedded camera market.”
For automotive applications, the company is seeing demand for forward-facing, rear-view, surround-view, and driver-monitoring cameras. Increasing electronic content in vehicles is also driving the deployment of more cameras both inside and around vehicles.
e-con Systems started operations in 2003 and began working on cameras in 2006. The company expects to supply around 600,000–700,000 cameras this year, with volumes approaching one million units.
Maharajan said the company’s move into automotive is driven partly by the growing use of cameras beyond traditional embedded equipment. Cameras are increasingly being used in applications including robotics, humanoids, construction vehicles, mining vehicles, and agricultural equipment.
Beyond IATF 16949, e-con Systems is also focusing on functional safety. The company is working towards ISO 26262-compliant cameras, which could also be used beyond automotive applications, including in automotive, including robotics, humanoids, delivery robots, and drones operating around people.
Maharajan explained that a camera failure can become a safety concern if a system continues to make decisions using outdated information. Functional-safety mechanisms can help systems identify such failures and take appropriate action.
Camera development is also becoming more challenging as sensor technology evolves rapidly. Newer image sensors can offer improved dynamic range or low-light performance, potentially enabling better ADAS performance. This means OEMs and system developers need to continually evaluate new sensors while balancing performance, integration, cost, and development timelines.
Maharajan shared that the company continuously evaluates newly released sensors in its R&D laboratories before deciding whether to develop products around them.
Customisation is another area where the company sees an opportunity. Unlike standard electronic components, cameras cannot always be treated as one-size-fits-all products because lens selection, lighting conditions, image tuning, and other parameters can vary according to the application.
“On the manufacturing side, e-con Systems has worked with its quality, engineering, and manufacturing teams to implement the processes required for IATF 16949. It is also increasing automation, including machines developed internally over several years to improve manufacturing accuracy, quality, and speed”, he added.
With automotive camera requirements becoming more sophisticated and volumes expected to grow, e-con Systems sees IATF 16949 as an entry point into the automotive camera supply chain.
