High Sensitivity Cameras: Principle and Technology HAMAMATSU PHOTONICS K. K. Brief overview
Where are high sensitivity cameras needed?
Nowadays using CCD cameras to capture, record and
Fig. 1 shows application fields where high sensitivity cameras
analyze images has become a routine task in many different
are needed. High sensitivity cameras are useful in fields where
fields. However, you may have noticed that ordinary CCD
lighting is not available or is inadequate or when sharper im-
cameras sometimes cannot capture images or the images are
ages are needed, etc.
unclear and buried in noise. For example, when observing a fluorescence image of cells under a microscope, the image you can see with your eyes might be difficult or impossible for an ordinary CCD camera to capture. This fact indicates that the human eye has greater sensitivity in dark locations than a CCD camera. Trying to capture images on the borderline of human vision with an ordinary CCD camera is extremely
Fields where no lighting is available • Fluorescence/luminescence observation • Luminous body and scintillator observation • Astronomical observation • Spectrometer readout • Electric discharge observation
difficult. Since this is due to the fact that the amount of light (light intensity) entering the camera is small, what we should do first is to increase the amount of light entering the CCD camera by boosting the excitation light striking the cells or using a brighter objective lens. However, boosting the excitation light or changing the objective lens only works in a certain cases due mostly to physical limitations. Other
Fields where lighting is inadequate • Monochromatic wavelength observation using interference filter • Fluorescence observation by laser excitation • Observation of biological cells • Nighttime surveillance
problems arise when observing a fluorescence image of cells, because applying a strong light to cells will sometimes cause
Fields where sharper images are needed
changes in the cells themselves. So, as you can see, a
• Observation of low contrast objects
special camera is needed for cases where the light intensity
• High precision measurements
cannot be increased. That essentially is the high sensitivity camera that we will tell you about below.
Fig. 1 Application fields using high sensitivity cameras
What is a high sensitivity camera? Though there is no particular definition, cameras that can acquire images of dark objects impossible for ordinary cameras to capture are usually referred to as high sensitivity cameras. These are special cameras that reveal images even in locations where an ordinary camera is useless because of inadequate light. Cameras using image intensifiers are a typical example of a high sensitivity camera. What might remain fresh in your memory is TV news images of nighttime scenes such as of the Iraq war where green-colored images are often shown. These exclusively green images were captured using a camera having an image intensifier.
Here let’s take a quick review of some basic camera knowledge. Information on position and intensity of light entering the camera is converted to electrical signals and output as video signals. To complete this process, a photoelectric converter is first of all used to convert the light into electrons. This photoelectric conversion efficiency is usually called 'quantum efficiency' (QE) and expressed in percentage. Some caution is needed here because the photoelectric conversion efficiency is also sometimes expressed in radiant sensitivity (mA/W). The electrons after
Charge-integration high sensitivity cameras • Cooled CCD cameras
Electron-multiplication high sensitivity cameras • SIT cameras • EB-CCD cameras • EM-CCD cameras • ICCD
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