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resolution and detail richness in its
dedicated field of optical tomogra-
phy. It enables in-vivo inspection of
human tissue down to the cell level as
well as fast ex-vivo microscopy. The
CSI2100 wafers are fabricated by the
wafer foundry Tower Jazz in Migdal
Haemek, Israel.
Besides its high full-well capacity the
CSI2100 achieves high frame rates up
to 700fps by integrating 35 LVDS (Low
voltage Differential Signaling) outputs.
Dark noise, mainly caused by ADC
quantization noise, is held to 945e.
Dynamic range is 66dB. The chip,
housed in a small µBGA package with
173 pins, has a power consumption of
just 2 watts (Figure 3).
The new sensor was conceived within
the EU-funded FFP7-ICT project
"CAReIOCA" (Non-Invasive Optical
Biopsy for Cancer Assessment Using
Ultra-high Resolution Full-Field Optical
Coherence Tomography) started in
2013. The program is continuing at a
fast pace developing and eval-uating
high-resolution/high-speed medical
imaging devices for perform-ing non-
invasive optical biopsy procedures by
building volumetric imag-es through
a Linnik interferometer analysis of
the interference patterns of light
reflected by the examined tissue
and a reference light source via an
oscillating mirror. This way, living cells
of 5µm in diameter can be captured
and examined.
A major scientific goal of the
CAReIOCA program is to establish
atlases of specific FFOCT histology
imagery for clinical use, foremost in
the di-agnostics and post-surgical
evaluation of cancer. This part is
carried out by Leiden University, The
Netherlands, and Gustave Roussy
Institute in Villejuif (Paris). Optical
developed to a point where they
cap-ture near-perfect imagery. Their
advantage compared to the older CCD
imagers is that they can be narrowly
tailored to their specific application
fields. In addition, CMOS sensors, by
virtue of their opera-tional principle
and established manufacturing
processes as CMOS semiconductor
devices, integrate on the same chip
image capture with multiple support
functions.
Such support functions include image
processing for high dynamic range
(HDR), on-chip noise suppression,
flexible
channel
multiplexing,
windowing and subsampling, and
high-speed LVDS interfacing. All
this leads to more compact camera
designs, better system interconnect
and compatibility, and ease of use.
High data throughput is very much
in demand for industrial vision, es-
pecially in production and inspection
tasks. Users want to get as much data
off their imagers as possible, asking
for the highest possible frame rate for
their specific applications. Throughput
rates have increased over the past
few years from 30 to 60 to about 120
Figure 1: Sensor CSI2100
biopsy is meant to ease the burden
on cancer patients by avoiding the
destructive removal of tissue probes
for tradi-tional biopsy and histological
analysis procedures.
By the end of 2014 CAReIOCA
had progressed to demonstrating
proto-types of a handheld FFOCT
endoscope containing the compact
2-MP camera Q-2A750/CXP with
CoaXPress interface, integrating the
CMOSIS sensor CSI2100. This new
diagnostic prototype system shows a
5 times higher processing speed and
a 3 times higher sensitivity compared
to existing designs.
CMOS Sensor Trends
CMOS sensors and cameras have
Figure 2: Image sensors are essential for a broad range of digital
systems and products
New-Tech Magazine Europe l 39