OWL SW1.7 CL-640 SWIR Camera with Advance Features

CHESHUNT, U.K. - April 24, 2014 - PRLog -- The OWL SW1.7 CL-640 is a rugged, high sensitivity digital VIS-SWIR camera. Using a 640 x 512 InGaAs sensor from SCD the OWL enables high sensitivity imaging from 0.4µm to 1.7µm. The 15µm x 15µm pixel pitch enables highest resolution VIS-SWIR image and with less than 65 electrons readout noise the OWL 640 enables the highest VIS-SWIR detection limit.

Available with a 14 bit CameraLink output, the OWL 640 will run from 10 to 120Hz enabling high speed digital video with intelligent auto AGC. This new feature On-board Automated Gain Control (AGC) will enable clear video in all light conditions. The OWL 640 also features an on-board intelligent 3 point NUC which will provide the highest quality images

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As with all Raptor cameras the OWL 640 is an ultra compact, low power (<5W) camera which makes it ideal for hand-held, mobile or airborne systems. It is very rugged, and has no fan enabling integration into UAV, handheld or any Electro-Optic system.

Typical applications are Solar cell inspection relies on imaging the photoluminescence or electroluminescence signals from a wafer to characterize it. The peak emission  for Silicon occurs at about 1150nm while it is around 1330nm for Copper Indium Gallium di-Selenide (CIGS) and Copper Indium di-Selenide (CIS). This value is out of the range of sensitivity for Silicon based detectors, such as CCDs, and traditionally their quantum efficiency is only measured up to 1000nm. However, the emission peak is actually broad enough to allow deep cooled CCD to capture meaningful images using very long integration times (typically minutes). Although interesting, this is insufficient and unpractical for industrial applications.

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Alternatively, shortwave infrared (SWIR) InGaAs technology is ideal to directly detect the electroluminescence emitted at 1.3µm by solar cells and ensure their quick characterization (within milliseconds) either during manufacturing or for pre-emptive maintenance operation of a photovoltaic plan. However, SWIR camera offer low field of view and low resolution, 320x256  pixels of 30µm and can be an expensive proposition. EMCCDs offer an interesting solution by combining larger field of view and resolution, 1004x1002 pixels of 8µm, for a better cost than SWIR. Making use of its high sensitivity in the near infrared (NIR) an EMCCD is capable of detecting the edge of the electroluminescence signal with exposure times short enough to achieve over 10fps.

Another application of solar cell electroluminescence beside cell characterization during manufacturing consists in the pre-emptive maintenance of an existing photovoltaic power plant. This requires being able to quickly identify the solar panels with defective solar cells which are responsible for reducing the overall efficiency. In this case, a large range of panels are driven under reverse bias and quickly scanned by either camera, SWIR or EMCCD, in video mode. The cells which are either damaged or operating at lower efficiency immediately appear allowing the identification of the panels which should be replaced in order to restore the overall efficiency. In conclusion, both technologies, SWIR and EMCCD work well for the characterization of solar cells. They offer a choice of solutions to suit a range of applications and customer’s requirements: SWIR allows for the fastest imaging albeit with a limited resolution and at a higher cost, while EMCCD offers higher resolution and better cost alternative at a more limited frame rate.

Other applications include 860, 1064 and 1550nm laser line detection, active Imaging, airborne payload, Hand Held Goggles, Imaging through fog, Range finding, Semiconductor Inspection, Solar Cell Inspection, Telecommunications and Thermography Raptor also offers a 320 version of this camera and a High Speed version (up to 350Hz).