Caeleste offers customized solutions for industrial and professional imaging projects

High speed Imaging

Fast phenomena can only be studied, when recorded at high frame rate. This requires special architectures with low noise read-out chains to compensate for low light levels.

  • High sensitivity: ≥ 100 µV/e– and low noise operation: ≤ 2 e–rms
  • Technology Global Shutter (6T pixel) operation
  • Multi-row access to reduce row overhead time
  • Block or segment wise read-out to achieve faster frame rates
  • Colour Filter Array (CFA) and Micro lens technologies are available

Sorting & hyperspectral imaging

Colour fidelity is the keyword for sorting applications. Whether a linear or area detector is used; the colour signal shall remain unchanged over the full array.

  • Low etaloning with optimised technologies
  • Custom designed pixel architecture and technology
  • Flexible timing (shutter modes & integration control)
  • Fast frame rates for hyperspectral imaging

Quality Inspection

Vision is the ideal non-contact technique for quality inspection. Global shutter, high speed and high dynamic range are important to cope with fast throughput and low light environment.

  • Low light level operation: Gain ≥ 100 µV/e–
  • In-pixel anti-blooming
  • Technology Global Shutter (5T and 6T pixel) to avoid jello and skewness
  • Low noise operation: ≤ 2 e–rms

Food Safety

Stimulated light processes, like fluorescence and Raman, are becoming available as in line inspection tools. They require image sensors with precise integration control and high gain, low-noise operation.

  • Short integration time to capture fluorescence peak
  • Accurate timing delay to discriminate fluorescence signals
  • Noise ≤ 0.3 e–rms (4T pixels and oversampling) for Raman detection
  • Low etaloning over the full array
  • Photon shot noise limited behavior when using SPAD’s

Caeleste has the short-term ambition to create CMOS imagers to match scientific CCDs in all respects:

  • backside illumination, stitching up to wafer scale
  • ILT-CCD like operation by the use of “global shutter” (GS) CMOS technology, at the same time allowing true, on-chip CDS
  • low dark current by pinned diodes, and buried memory nodes for global shutter operation

Where CMOS outperforms CCD:

  • CMOS type of interfaces, including on-chip AD conversion, extremely high data throughput, at the lowest possible power
  • linear, >100dB dynamic range by Caeleste’s exclusive HDR techniques (see patents page), compatible with CDS and GS
  • radiation tolerance, for TID, SEU, SET etc.