Engineers at Andanta (Olching, Germany) claim to have developed the highest-resolution monolithic sensor in the world.
The 10k x 10k, 111-Mpixel CCD imager produces only 5 electrons of read-out noise at a 1-MHz data rate and less than 3 electrons if clocked at the higher rate of 100 kHz.
The noise reduction has been accomplished by using on-board integrated preamplifiers that surround the imager as well as an Invar sensor package.
Besides the low-noise imager, a split-frame transfer version of the product is also available in which image data from two halves of the sensor can be read out in parallel.
By using four of the devices in a 2 x 2 configuration, the engineers at Andanta have also developed a bespoke imager for one of their key customers that provides a total 444-Mpixel resolution.
-- By Dave Wilson, Senior Editor, Vision Systems Design
