SI-1280F- M & RGB MegaCamera™  

1.3 Megapixel, 12-Bit, 60MHz

Ultra-Fast Full-Frame Shutter Digital Camera 

Silicon Imaging Inc. 

Silicon Imaging is proud to continue its innovation in ultra-high speed machine vision camera.  Driven by the growing demand for consumer Digital Still Cameras, CMOS sensors are continuing to break technical barriers and surpass the performance characteristics of CCD’s in many photonic, imaging and consumer applications.  By utilizing a single highly integrated CMOS device, which incorporates Megapixel sensing areas, timing generation, signal processing and high bandwidth outputs, Silicon Imaging has developed a very compact, low-power, ultra high speed Megapixel digital camera system.

1280 x 1024 Megapixel Imaging - Ultra Speed

The SI-1280F is the worlds first 1.3 Million pixel Full-Frame Shutter, all-digital CMOS camera capable of running at video rates of 40 frames/second at its full 1280 x 1024 resolution and over 500 frames/per second at 320 x 240 resolution.  The entire package is only 45 x 52 x 50mm and is small enough to placed on a robot for semiconductor machine vision inspection, embedded into a portable medical instrumentation for cell biology or placed in an aerial drones for remote surveillance.

12-Bit Pixel Clock Sampling – Sub-Pixel Accuracy

The MegaCameraä uses 12-Bit digitizers to sample the pixel data at up to 60MHz to achieve 40 Frames/sec data throughput at its full Megapixel resolution. Converting the pixel data directly to digital at the sensor head eliminates pixel-sampling jitter and enables accurate sub-pixel metrology, image analysis and improved live video reconstruction.

Full-Frame Triggered Shutter – Stop the Motion

Most common CMOS sensors only have a  “Rolling Shutter” to control the exposure time for each line in the image.  This method can produce unwanted motion tilts or jagged edges, as each row ends integration after the previous one above it.  The SI-1280F provides a Full-Frame triggered shutter, which completely stops any motion artifacts by exposing all pixels simultaneously and holding the exposed value until it is progressively readout.

Dual Slope Exposure - “Super-Dynamic Range”

The SI-1280F can be used in a dual slope bi-linear mode, extending the useful dynamic range in scenes where detail in bright areas are to be preserved at the same time as maintaining details in darker regions.  In normal linear response, a camera requires a short exposure to keep the bright areas from saturation.  However, the darker regions of the image would not have enough time to integrate charge.  If the exposure is set longer the detail in the dark areas will become visible by the brighter areas will become saturated.  The dual-slope operation combines the transfer of nominal integration time (steep slope, high sensitivity) with the transfer curve obtained from a short electronic shutter (shorter exposure time, lower sensitivity), into a single exposing operation.

2400 Frames per Second - Windowing & Subsampling

Ideal for object tracking and high-speed Motion analysis, the SI-1280 is capable of generating imagery at over 2400 frames per second by reducing the size of the readout image (ex. 100x100).    This windowed Region-of–Interest (ROI) can be moved dynamically, creating an entirely electronic pan/tilt/zoom function within the camera field-of-view.

USB 2.0 and CameraLinkä Digital Interfaces

The SI-1280F is available with either USB 2.0 or CameraLinkä interfaces.   CameraLinkä provides the utmost performance.   An industry standard forum has adopted CameraLinkä, for low cost connectivity and cabling at very high speeds.  The SI-1280F-CL can output 1280 x 1024 12 bit data at 40 frames per second (865 Mbits/second) continuously to a frame grabber.  For applications requiring more modest data rates, the SI-1280F-U USB 2.0 cameras achieve simple connectivity at low cost.  1280 x 1024 8 bit data can be output at 20 frames per second.  A table of available frames rates for each interface is shown below.  

FEATURES

·       1280 x 1024 Resolution (1.3 Million Pixels)

·       Full Frame Triggered Shutter, Progressive scan

·       2/3” Imaging Format , 6.7um Square Pixel

·       Windowing and Subsampling

·       12 Bits per Pixel, 55MHz Sampling

·       High Speed Readout (30  ~ 3000FPS)

·       Region-of-Interest (ROI) windowing

·       Progressive Rolling Shutter Mode

·       1usec~4sec Precision High Speed Shutter

·       Long Integration (up to n-Frame Times)

·       Programmable Gain, Offset, Clock, Shutter & ROI

·       External Clock Synchronization (FrameLock)

·       Monochrome & Color Bayer RGB Models

·       5VDC Low Power, Small Package

·       C-Mount Housing or PCB versions

·       CameraLinkä or USB 2.0 Digital Interface

SI-1280F MegaCamera™ Specifications

Sensor:

A/D Conversion & Sampling Clock Synthesizer

Digital Video Output  

 CameraLink Frame Grabber Control:

Power

Mechanical

Spectral Response Curve

 click image to view larger version

SI-1280F CameraLink Frame Rates 

The SI-1280F has a Digital Clock Synthesizer capable of generating a range of frequencies from 20MHz to 60MHz.  The pixel data output rate is the same as the sampling clock rate. A range of preset frequencies are listed below. There are 150 clocks overhead per row for readout

Frame Rate Calculation

To calculate the frame rate for any clock rate the equation is:

(               clock rate(Hz)                   )         =     #  Frames Per Second (fps)

                        ( # of columns + 150)   *  ( # of rows)

Example:    What is the frame rate, at 60MHz clock rate for an image size of 800 x 600?

              60 x 10⁶                                       =     105  Frames Per Second (fps)

                              ( 800 + 150)  *  ( 600  )

**  FRAME RATES are based on ROLLING SHUTTER operation.  Full-Frame Shutter requires the additional time for exposure for each frame.   Subsampling frame rates are based on the resulting size of the subsampled image or window.

Test Image - Click to view full size