Princeton Instruments PhotonMAX System, Manual, Page: 47 / 98

Chapter 5 Operation 47
Readout Rate
PhotonMAX has two readout rates
available on each of the two ports.
Selected on the
Acquisition|Experiment
Setup…|ADC
tab page, a slower readout
rate can be used when better noise
performance is needed at the expense of
frame rate. On the other hand, increased
frame readout rate can be achieved by one
or more of the following
•
higher readout speed,
•
sub-region selection,
•
binning.
For more information on frame rate, please
refer to the product data sheet.
Figure 31. Selecting the Readout Rate
(Experiment Setup|ADC tab page)
Binning
Binning (combining pixels into one super pixel) allows you to increase the sensitiv i ty and
frame rate. On the other hand, binning reduces spatial resolution. The PhotonMAX
allows binning of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 in the serial (horizontal) direction and arbitrary
binning in the parallel (vertical) direction.
Array Orientation
For square format CCDs (for example, 512 × 512 or 1024 × 1024) you may orient the
CCD to achieve binning along either direction of the CCD.
•
Binning along columns (parallel mode) provides maximum scan rate and lowest noise.
•
Binning along the rows (perpendicular mode) minimizes crosstalk and is therefore
better for multi-spectral applications. The drawback to this method is that scanning is
slower and noise may increase somewhat.