Product category:
Vision and Colour Sensors
News Release from: Flir Systems | Subject: Indigo Phoenix
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 05 August 2004
Infra-red camera claims new standards
Billed as "the premier infra-red solution for industrial, scientific and military applications", the Indigo Phoenix MW infra-red camera is a modular system with selectable resolution.
Billed as "the premier infra-red solution for industrial, scientific and military applications", the Indigo Phoenix MW infra-red camera is a modular system with selectable resolution and both digital and analogue video signal processing electronics for datarates up to 12.2Mpixel/s It also comes with unmatched lens options from microscopes to telescopes
The standard model includes an indium antimonide (InSb) detector operating in the spectral range of 1.5-5um, although in common with other cameras in this family, Phoenix NIR and LWIR models may also be specified.
The camera's superior infra-red sensors and dedicated electronics support many advanced features including snapshot pixel exposure, adjustable gain, variable exposure times, windowing for increased frame rates and invert/revert.
The ThermaCAM Phoenix camera is ideal for any infra-red industrial, scientific, or military use when flexibility and unequalled performance is vital.
In atmospheric phenomenology - when flexible and high speed sampling rates are needed to successfully capture passive target signatures or signals from actively illuminated systems, through turbulent atmospheric paths - the Phoenix windowing modes are essential.
Additionally, the camera's integrate-while-read mode maximises sensitivity by allowing almost 100% of the frame time for integration of the signal.
In nondestructive testing - for applications where profiling the decay of the thermal signatures is required - the external synchronisation and high speed, uninterrupted, sequence acquisition modes make Phoenix the ideal tool.
For long-range surveillance - when high resolution and magnification are required for detection of thermal targets at long range - a large format Phoenix camera with a 60/180/500mm telescope provides an optimum solution.
And for pulsed laser detection, minimisation of atmospheric backscatter is extremely important for actively illuminated, passive imaging systems.
The ability to precisely "gate" the integration of return energy from a target, for very short time periods, at very low noise levels is what makes the Phoenix NIR camera perfect for this application.
Designed for severe environments, the head offers both conductive and convective cooling for reliable operation in wide ranges of temperature and altitude.
All Phoenix camera heads have a choice of detector format, either 320 x 256 or 640 x 512 pixel.
The larger format is ideal for long range surveillance especially when combined with the 60, 180 or 500mm telescopic lenses available with the camera.
ThermaCAM Phoenix employs a "split"architecture configuration under which the camera head is separated from the electronics by an interface cable.
This split head architecture allows the user a choice of data acquisition solutions - RTIE or DAS.
Although both solutions enable synchronisation modes, windowing capabilities and triggering features, the real time imaging electronics (RTIE) is a dedicated electronics subsystem that provides real-time pixel gain and off-set correction and generates video (Pal or NTSC), as well as S-Video, with data rates up to 14.75Mpixel/s.
In contrast, the DAS (data acquisition system) includes a proprietary camera interface/sync processor board capable of handling data rates of up to 40Mpixel/, and also has a provision for two additional readout channels in the DAS - frame rates of up to 38kHz are supported To complement RTIE or DAS hardware, Phoenix is also available with a powerful software package.
ThermaCAM RTools is a highly sophisticated software package developed for engineers and scientists to acquire process and analyse information from a range of cameras, including the ability to radiometrically and thermographically calibrate the camera.
Created for flexible and extensive use in data archiving, ThermaCAM RTools uses the US Air Force's Standard Archive Format (SAF). Request a free brochure from Flir Systems ...
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