Thermal Integration Guide | Ouster Sensor Docs

The Ouster lidar sensors offer an industry-leading combination of price, performance, reliability, size, weight, and power. They are designed for indoor/outdoor all-weather environments and a long operating lifetime.

The Ouster family of sensors consists of three models — the OS0, OS1, and OS2 — with differing beam configuration and vertical resolution but identical mechanical dimensions.

The contents of this guide are applicable to Rev 06 sensors. Contact support@ouster.io with your sensor serial number to confirm your hardware revision. For all other hardware revisions, refer to the respective hardware user manual on the Downloads page.

Terminology

For the purposes of this document, let us first establish common terminology used throughout this guide.

Sensor without any heatsink or mounting plates — The Sensor without any heatsink or mounting plate

Heatsink Types

**Heatsink Base** — doubles as the standard mounting plate.

**Heatsink Radial** — radial finned heatsink modular cap.

**Heatsink Halo** — halo finned heatsink modular cap. *Preferred* when the application requires reduced sharp edges.

Heatsink Clamshell (empty) — **Heatsink Clamshell** — reference heatsink for integrating into vehicles where tighter integration is required.

Heatsink Clamshell with Ouster Sensor — **Heatsink Clamshell** with an Ouster Sensor installed.

Sensor Parts

Top Cap — the top of the sensor, which accepts modular heatsinks (Heatsink-Radial, Heatsink-Halo) and has mounting features for seamless integrations.
Window — the window through which the lasers are emitted.
Sensor Base — the base of the sensor which has the connector mounted to it.

Convection Terms

Term	Definition
Free Convection	Movement within a fluid caused by hotter (less dense) material rising and colder (denser) material sinking under gravity, resulting in heat transfer.
Stagnant Air	Air that is not moving other than by Free Convection.
Forced Convection	Heat transfer due to bulk movement of fluid molecules over an object — caused by wind, a fan, vehicle motion, etc.

For the reference tests in the Thermotron SE-1000-6-6 Environmental Chamber, the Forced Convection flow rate is 1000 CFM (approximately 0.5 m/s or 1.8 km/h). Air flows from top to bottom.