Version 1.0 rev 14 Aug 2019
27
Balor
4.4 U
sing
tHe
b
aloR
c
aMeRa
Once set-up the Balor camera is controlled through the camera control software. Please refer to the information supplied
with the camera control software (available separately) for further details e.g.
Andor Solis
or
SDK3
. For information on the
features available with the Balor please refer to the
remainder of Section 4
.
4.4.1
s
cMos s
ensoRs
: s
tRUctURe
and
o
peRation
sCMOS technology has been developed specifically to overcome many of the limitations that have marred other scientific
detector technologies, resulting in an imaging detector that provides exceptional performance for many applications.
Horizontal Scan Circuit
Vertical Scan Cir
cuit
APS with column A/D
Photo Ampl Switches
1
2
3
4
5
Figure 4: sCMOS sensor architecture.
An sCMOS sensor is an “Active Pixel Sensor” in that each pixel has its own integral amplifier. The basic operation is as
follows:
1. Light (photons) hits the sensor and generates charge (electrons).
2. The photo-generated charge is converted to an analog voltage for each pixel amplifier.
3. These pixel voltages are transferred to the column bus via a row select signal.
4. The analog voltages are then converted to digital signals via columns of analog to digital (A/D) converters.
5. The final digitized signals are then read out at an effective pixel readout speed of up to 900 MHz.
sCMOS sensors provide benefits over more traditional CCD sensors in terms of speed and sensor size, making them
ideal for many scientific applications. Please refer to the Andor website for a range of technical articles on sCMOS.
NOTES:
The diagram above is representative- the light sensitive area is contiguous as the photodiodes for each pixel are
buried within the sensor. Each pixel also has a microlens to maximize sensitivity to light.
For Rolling Shutter mode operation, pixels in each row are exposed and the charge converted to a voltage
simultaneously before being digitized then read out sequentially.
For Global Shutter mode, each pixel in the sensor begins an exposure simultaneously and then ends this exposure
simultaneously.