sCMOS cameras for physical sciences
Balor, Marana and ZL41 Wave from Oxford Instruments AndorThe Balor, Marana and ZL41 Wave sCMOS cameras are an advancement of the well-known CMOS technology for scientific applications. Due to their special characteristics, they are suitable for many quantitative measurement problems in physics and astronomy. As all Andor sCMOS cameras have extremely low noise and high sensitivity, they can often yield a better image than EMCCD cameras - even in low light conditions. Due to its vacuum enclosure, the sensors of the Marana and Balor can be cooled to industry-leading -45 °C and -30 °C, respectively, opening up possibilities for very demanding applications. Beside the typical use for imaging, the Marana and ZL41 Wave sCMOS cameras are very suitable for high-speed spectroscopy, especially for multi-track and hyperspectral imaging.
- Extremely low read noise of 0.9 electrons (lower detection limit than any CCD camera)
- High resolution from 4.2 50 16.9 megapixel with pixel sizes from 6.5 µm to 12 µm
- Fast frame rates up to 101 frames/s at full resolution
- High dynamic range up to 53,000 : 1
Further information
The Balor, Marana and ZL41 Wave sCMOS cameras offer high speed, high sensitivity, and high resolution imaging performance – all at once. They can be integrated easily into research applications.
In a vacuum cooled platform, loaded with FPGA intelligence, the Balor and Marana sCMOS cameras are designed to drive highest possible sensitivity from this exciting and innovative technology development. Unlike any CMOS or CCD technology to come before it, Balor and Marana simultaneously deliver highest specifications in sensitivity, resolution, speed, dynamic range and field-of-view: true scientific imaging without compromise.
Based on a new and unique 16.9 megapixel sensor, Balor is a revolutionary sCMOS camera especially for astronomy with a very large field of view and exceptionally fast 18.5 ms readout. Balor is capable of acquiring up to 54 frames per second at full resolution whilst maintaining very low <3 electrons read noise. The 12 µm pixels offer large well depth and an on-chip multi-amplifier design means the whole photometric range, from the noise floor up to the saturation limit, can be captured with one image, ideal for quantifying across a range of intensities. The 16.9 megapixel sensor of the Balor with a size of 49.5 mm x 49.2 mm offers the largest field of view of any sCMOS camera on the market.
Marana employs Back Illuminated sCMOS sensors with 4.2 megapixels and highest available quantum efficiency of 95 %. An UV-optimized sensor delivers best sensitivity from 250 nm to 400 nm.
The Zyla is ideally suited to many experiments that push the boundaries of speed and sensitivity, offering sustained performance of up to 101 frames per second with CameraLink interface - even faster with sub-images - and read noise down to 0.9 electrons. Zyla’s unique dark noise suppression technology ensures the low noise advantage is maintained over a wide range of exposure conditions. The 'plug and play' interface option offers industry leading USB 3.0 frame rate performance of up to 53 frames/s at 4.2 megapixel resolution. The unprecedented value and flexibility of the Zyla means it is also re-defining the concept of a 'workhorse' camera, rapidly displacing interline CCD cameras.
Choice of Rolling and Global (snapshot) exposure mechanisms ensure maximum application flexibility for the ZL41 Wave sCMOS cameras with the 5.5 megapixel sensor; the latter providing a 'freeze frame' capture capability that emulates that of an interline transfer CCD camera.
Specifications
|
| Balor | Marana 4.2B-11 | Marana 4.2B-6 | ZL14 Wave 5.5 | ZL41 Wave 4.2 |
| Resolution | 4128 x 4104 x 12 µm | 2048 x 2048 x 11 µm | 2048 x 2048 x 6.5 µm | 2560 x 2160 x 6.5 µm | 2048 x 2048 x 6.5 µm |
| Sensor Diagonal | 70 mm | 31.9. mm | 18.8 mm | 21.8 mm | 18.8 mm |
| Quantum Efficiency | 61 % | 95 % | 94 % | 64 % | 82 % |
| Read Noise | 2.9 e- | 1.6 e- | 1.1 e- | 0.9 e- | 0.9 e- |
| Sensor-Temperature | -30 °C | -45 °C | -45 °C | 0 °C or -10 °C | 0 °C or -10 °C |
| Dark Current | 0.065 e-/pixel/s | 0.3 e-/pixel/s | 0.1 e-/pixel/s | 0.1 or 0.019 e-/pixel/s | 0.1 or 0.019 e-/pixel/s |
| Cooling | Air and water or only water | Air and water | Air and water | Air or water | Air or water |
| Dynamic Range | 27,586 : 1 | 53,000 : 1 | 26,000 : 1 | 33,000 : 1 | 33,000 : 1 |
| Linearity | >99.7 % | >99.7 % | >99.7 % | >99.8 % | >99.8 % |
| PRNU (Photon Response Non-Uniformity) | <0.5 % | <0.5 % | <0.5 % | <0.01 % | <0.01 % |
| Shutter | Rolling and Global | Rolling | Rolling | Rolling and Global | Rolling |
| Interface | CoaXPress | USB 3.0 | USB 3.0 / CoaXPress | USB 3.0 or 10-tap CameraLink | USB 3.0 or 10-tap CameraLink |
| Full Frame Rate at Full Resolution | 54 | 48 | 43 / 74 | 40 or 100 | 53 or 101 |
Watch the videos about key specifications and typical applications.
Applications
Downloads
Videos
Reference customers
| Title | Author(s) | Institute | Year | Detector / Spectrograph |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsopy | ||||
| Microscopy of LEDs and phosphors in practical exercises for students | S. Bock, D. Berben | Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, South Westphalia University of Applied Sciences, Hagen, Germany | 2017 | Neo-5.5-CL3 |
| Fluorescence microscopy of semiconductor nanowire arrays | S. Rahimzadeh-Kalaleh Rodriguez1, D. van Dam2, J. Gomez Rivas1,2 | 1Surface Photonics, AMOLF, c/o Philips Research Laboratories, Eindhoven, The Netherlands 2COBRA Research Institute, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands | 2014 | Neo DC152 QC-FI1 |
| Detection of electrochemically generated peroxide and superoxide by fluorescence microscopy | C. Dosche, S. Dongmo | Institute of Chemistry, University of Oldenburg, Germany | 2013 | Neo DC152 QC-FI1 |
| Imaging with scintillation screens | ||||
| Field ion microscopy of electron emitters | P. Groß, A. Schröder, C. Lienau, S. Schäfer | Institute for Physics, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Germany | 2019 | Neo-5.5-CL3 |
| Phase transitions in 1T-TaS2 mapped by ultrafast LEED | S. Vogelgesang, G. Storeck, S. Schäfer, C. Ropers | IV. Physical Institute, Georg-August-University, Göttingen, Germany | 2017 | Zyla-5.5-CL10 |
| Application of the sCMOS camera Andor Neo for X-ray and neutron imaging | N. Kardjilov1, S. Williams1,2, F. Wieder1, A. Hilger1, I. Manke1 | 1Helmholtz-Zentrum-Berlin, Berlin, Germany 2Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA | 2014 | Neo DC152-QF-FI3 |
| Polarization dependent photoelectron emission with high lateral resolution | T. Wagner | Institute of Experimental Physics, University of Linz, Austria | 2012 | Neo DC152-QC-FI1 |
| Quantum physics | ||||
| Silicon-vacancy color centers in n-type diamond | A. M. Flatae, F. Sledz, M. Agio | Laboratory of Nano-Optics and Cμ, University of Siegen, Germany | 2020 | Zyla-4.2P-USB3-W |
| T. Lompe | Institute of Laser Physics, Quantum Matter Group,University of Hamburg, Germany | 2019 | Zyla-5.5-USB3 | |
| Real- and momentum-space imaging of plasmonic waveguide arrays | F. Bleckmann, S. Linden | Physikalisches Institut, | 2016 | Zyla-5.5-USB3 |
| Plasma and fusion research | ||||
| Evaluation of the Zyla sCMOS imaging camera for IMSE diagnostic | O. P. Ford, C. Biedermann | Wendelstein 7-X, Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Greifswald, Germany | 2014 | Zyla-5.5-CL10 |
| Measuring ion temperatures and helium densities in the hot core of a nuclear fusion reactor using sCMOS and EMCCD cameras | R. J. E. Jaspers | Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands | 2014 | Neo DC152 QC-FI1 |
| Real-time characterization of plasma evolution by diffraction imaging | N. K. Rothe, A. V. Svanidze, C. Schuster, M. Lütgens, S. Lochbrunner | Institute of Physics, University of Rostock, Germany | 2013 | Neo DC152 QC-FI1 |
| Astronomy | ||||
| High-speed photometry with the Marana sCMOS camera at the Planetary Transit Study Telescope | P. Ioannidis, J.H.M.M. Schmitt | Hamburg Observatory, Physics Department, University of Hamburg, Germany | 2020 | Marana-4BV11 |
| Testing an Andor Marana sCMOS camera for high-speed astronomical image acquisition | M. Risch1 | 1 Planetarium, Mammendorf, Germany 2 PlaneWave Instruments, Adrian, MI, USA | 2020 | Marana-4BV6U |
| High-speed imaging and its applications: Beating down the scintillation noise | P. Ioannidis, J.H.M.M. Schmitt | Hamburg Observatory, Physics Department, University of Hamburg, Germany | 2017 | Zyla-4.2-CL10 Neo-5.5-CL3 |
| Active optical debris detection: Highly accurate position determination of space debris orbits | W. Riede, D. Hampf, P. Wagner, L. Humbert, F. Sproll, A. Giesen, | Institute of Technical Physics, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Stuttgart, Germany | 2016 | Zyla-5.5-CL10 |
| Nonlinear optics | ||||
| Imaging through nonlinear metalenses for second harmonic generation | C. Schlickriede, T. Zentgraf | Department of Physics, Paderborn University, Paderborn, Germany | 2020 | Zyla-5.5-USB3 |
| Particle image velocimetry (PIV) and particle tracking velocimetry (PTV) | ||||
| Redesign of a 3D PTV system with ANDOR’s Neo sCMOS | P. Steinhoff, M. Schmidt, D. Müller | E.ON Energy Research Center, Institute for Energy Efficient Buildings and Indoor Climate (EBC), RWTH Aachen University, Germany | 2013 | Neo DC152 QFR-FI2 |
| Spectroscopy | ||||
| Photoluminescence spectroscopy of metal nanoantennas coupled to the atomically thin semiconductor WS2 | J. Kern, R. Bratschitsch | Institute of Physics and Center for Nanotechnology, University of Münster, Germany | 2015 | Neo-5.5-CL3 |
| Using a surface-forces-apparatus to measure force-distance profiles across confined ionic liquids | T. Utzig, H.-W. Cheng, M. Valtiner | Department of Interface Chemistry and Surface Engineering, Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung, Düsseldorf, Germany | 2014 | Zyla-5.5-CL3 |
Remarks:
1New part number of DC152 QC-FI: Neo-5.5-CL3
2Neo DC152 QFR-FI replaced by Neo-5.5-CL3-F
3New part number of DC152 QF-Fi: Neo-5.5-CL3-F
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