Andor Technology Zyla sCMOS 4.2 PLUS, Hardware Manual

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version 2.0 rev 18 Feb 2021
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The method of combining signals from two 11-bit ADCs can be divided into four basic steps.
1. At the end of the analog chain the “Signal” voltage is applied to two independent amplifiers: the high
gain amplifier and the low gain amplifier. This results in two separate digital data streams from the
sensor
2. The camera selects which data stream to use on a pixel per pixel, frame by frame basis using a
threshold method
3. The data is then compensated for DC offset and gain. Again, this is done on a pixel by pixel basis using
the compensation data associated with the data stream. The gain corrects for pixel to pixel relative
sensitivity, pixel node amplifier and the high and low amplifier relative gains
4. The pixels are then combined into a single 16-bit image for transfer to the PC
The user maintains the choice of opting to stay with 12-bit single gain channel data if dynamic range is not
critical, resulting in smaller file sizes. This in turn offers faster frame rates when continuously spooling through
the Camera Link interface and writing to hard disk.
Table 4: Typical performance of supported gain settings of the Zyla 5.5 (Jan 2012 onwards)
Amplifier Gain
(Current Andor SDK / Solis description)
Mode
Sensitivity e
-
/
ADU (typical)
Data
Range
Effective pixel saturation
limit / e -
Spooling File Size
(per frame)
12-bit (high well capacity) GS/RS 7.5 12-bit 30,000 8 Mb
12-bit (low noise) GS 0.42 12-bit 1,700 8 Mb
12-bit (low noise) RS 0.28 12-bit 1,100 8 Mb
16-bit (low noise and high well capacity) GS 0.45 16-bit 30,000 10.5 Mb
16-bit (low noise and high well capacity) RS 0.45 16-bit 30,000 10.5 Mb
Table 5: Typical performance of supported gain settings of the Zyla 4.2
Amplifier Gain
(Current Andor SDK / Solis description)
Mode
Sensitivity e
-
/
ADU (typical)
Data
Range
Effective pixel saturation
limit / e -
Spooling File Size
(per frame)
12-bit (high well capacity) RS 7.5 12-bit 30,000 6.1 Mb
12-bit (low noise) RS 0.28 12-bit 1,100 6.1 Mb
16-bit (low noise and high well capacity) RS 0.45 16-bit 30,000 8.1 Mb
Figure 13: High contrast image of fixed labelled cell. Intensity line profile through single row demonstrates pixel regions that were
sampled by high gain (low noise) and low gain (high capacity) amplifiers.