SW-2000M-CL-65
27
7.2.3
LINE CTRL -
Exposure Control
The camera has three exposure control modes: internal, external and mixed, which is a
combined mode of the first two. The start and length of each line, as well as the time that the
light is collected within each line period, follow the same principles regardless of the selected
mode.
The time when the exposure of one line ends and the exposure of the next line starts (change
of line) initiates a procedure that is common to all the modes. That includes stopping the
integration of light – or actually the collecting of the light generated electrons to the selected
Quantum Wells (one per pixel), sampling the respective charge voltages, and starting the
conversions into digital values to represent the amount of light that each pixel collected.
At the same time, the new line period starts and the camera starts to process the data that in
fact originates from the line period that occurred two periods earlier. There is a constant delay
from the end of each scan to the time where the first pixel value comes out of the camera. The
user always gets exactly one line of data for each request of a new line, but due to the internal
delay, it cannot always be the next line after the request.
It is possible to limit the amount of time that light is effectively collected (integration time)
within each scan period by using an electronic shutter function. The integration time always
ends at the same time as the line. The start of the integration time should thus be selected to
match the intended length.
Only two signals or events are needed for these operations. First one is the new line request
and the second one is the signal to start the integration. The source for these events can either
come directly from the input signals of the camera, or from internal timers, or as a
combination of these two.
Command
Description
LINE CTRL ?
Returns the command syntax.
LINE CTRL
Returns the present line control setting.
LINE CTRL EXT
Line rate and integration time are controlled externally by the
host.
LINE CTRL INT
Line rate and integration time are controlled by the camera.
Default setting.
LINE CTRL MIX
Line rate is controlled by externally by the host.
Integration time is controlled internally by the camera.
7.2.3.1
Internal exposure control (command: LINE CTRL INT)
The scan rate is defined either by the LINE RATE or the LINE PERIOD command, which are
inverse of each other. The LINE IT command (LINE Integration Time) sets the length of the
exposure time during each scan. The Line IT must be shorter than the Line Period. The actual
integration takes place in the first part of the line period. If the Line Integration time is
commanded to be longer than the Line Period then the integration time will stop at the same