THORLABS BC106-UV, Operation Manual

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© 2011 Thorlabs
56 Thorlabs Beam 4.0
even required to disable the automatic exposure control and set the optimal values
manually. For this, remove the 'Auto Exposure Control' check mark.
Manual Exposure Control
Exposure time is the period of time in which the global shutter is open and the image
sensor is exposed. For CW sources there is a linear dependency between exposure
time and mean image brightness. Increase the exposure time to increase brightness
and vice versa.
Exposure time ranges from 0.020 ms to 1000 ms with a step width of 0.063 ms
whereas lowest exposure times 20µs, 43µs, 74µs, 136µs, ... are separated by
smaller steps.
Use the up and down arrows in order to increase and decrease the exposure time
stepwise, respectively. Step size is automatically adapted to the actual value so that
a change of about 20% is achieved. To enter a certain value just overwrite the
present one.
Gain Factor denotes the linear amplification factor of the electrical amplifier between
the CCD sensor and the AD converter. Higher gain increase image brightness but
also image noise. Therefore, it is highly recommended to mainly use the exposure
time control for brightness adjustments.
Gain settings higher than 1.0 should be used only when
Exposure time is already set to its maximum value or
Exposure time below 1 ms is set and fine gain adjustment is helpful to fill the
gap in brightness between two successive exposure times.
AD Saturation
AD (Analog-to-Digital Converter) saturation is related to the intensity of the brightest
pixel within an image and is given in % of the available range between the dark level
and saturation of the AD converter at its full scale value. It is recommended to keep
the Image Saturation at a high level in order to use the full resolution of the AD
converter (4095 digits for 12 bit, 255 digits for 8 bit image data). The actual image
saturation level is displayed as a numerical value. A value between 80% and 95% is
recommended.
AD Precision Mode
AD Precision Mode controls the number of bits used for digitization of each single
camera pixel.