FLARE CL
FEATURES
HIGH RESOLUTION AND HIGH FRAME RATE
The Flare™ CL series is a family of high-throughput video cameras featuring high-resolution and high frame rate image sensors and a robust Camera Link industrial video interface. Available CMOS image sensors include the CMV2000 2.2MP sensor, the CMV4000 4.2MP sensor, and the CMV12000 12.6MP sensor. All sensors use global shutter technology, with high-sensitivity and low-noise pixel designs. Monochrome, color and NIR-enhanced monochrome models are available to suit a variety of applications in industrial and scientific imaging, high speed motion analysis, as well as virtual reality and special effects.
GLOBAL OR ROLLING SHUTTER SENSORS
The CMOS image sensors used in the Flare camera series feature global shutter capability. Global shutter means all pixels across the sensor capture light during the same period of time. In contrast, sensors which use a rolling shutter technique will stagger the start of exposure throughout the rows of the image. This leads to motion artifacts in fast-moving scenes, as well as uneven frame illumination if bright flashes occur partway through the exposure period.
HIGH SPEED DIGITAL VIDEO OUTPUTS
With sensors producing hundreds if not thousands of megabytes of video data per second, systems using the Flare CL series cameras need a way of accessing this stream of information. As such, these cameras are designed with Camera Link digital video outputs, which are standardized and well-established. System designers have a wide variety of Camera Link infrastructure parts to choose from, including PC frame grabber cards, cables, fiber-optic range extenders, and of course uncompressed solid-state video recording systems such as the DVR Express Core 2.
LOW POWER, LOW HEAT, LOW NOISE
The Flare CL cameras are designed with premium image quality in mind. One of the factors that impacts image quality the most is noise, which can be introduced in a variety of ways. One major driver of noise is the sensor temperature. To minimize the effect of temperature on the image noise, the Flare CL cameras are designed with low-power electronics and effective passive cooling. The overall power consumption is low for all models and most generated heat is dissipated convectively or conductively through the all-aluminum chassis, which acts as a heat-sink to the internal electronics.
HIGH NEAR-INFRARED SENSITIVITY
The Flare CL 2MP and 4MP cameras can be ordered with three sensor types - monochrome, color (Bayer) and NIR-enhanced monochrome. This version of the sensor has the same frame rate capabilities as the standard monochrome sensor, but are manufactured with a thicker epitaxial layer to boost NIR sensitivity. Specifically, at 900nm the quantum efficiency (QE) doubles from 8% to 16% over the standard monochrome sensor. QE is limited past 1000nm due to the abilities of silicon-based sensors, but for any applications in the 600-1000nm range these sensors offer good sensitivity in addition to high resolution and high frame rates.
