Intensified sCMOS Cameras

In addition to the single-channel configuration (pco.dicam C1), multi-channel configurations are also available. In the above table, the performance of 1x, 4x and 8x systems from the pco.dicam series are shown for comparison and selection.

Image intensifiers increase the intensity of the available light in a system, allowing better image reproduction in low light scenarios. Image intensification is useful if a few photons have to be detected in an extremely short exposure time of a few nanoseconds, which emCCD and sCMOS cannot match. Image intensifiers allow such extremely short exposure times - often referred to as gating.

Nanosecond exposure times are about 6 orders of magnitude shorter than the corresponding sensor readout times even when the intensifier is coupled with fast state of the art sCMOS sensors. Thus it is essential that the “light leakage” into the readout process is extremely small. This leakage rate is best described quantitatively by the term shutter ratio. Proper synchronization and control of the different components that shape the light signal path can achieve shutter ratios better than 10^-9.

The typical reaction times of most conventional imagers (CMOS, sCMOS, CCD) to an externally triggered event are at least a few microseconds. This is due to the fact that previously accumulated charge on pixels must be cleared prior to the initiation of a new exposure. The photocathode of an image intensifier can be switched from closed to open with a much shorter latency — response times of less than 50 nanoseconds are feasible. Thus, optical events with a very short pre-alert time, out of reach for CCD, CMOS and sCMOS sensors, can be captured with image intensification technology.