Custom Cameras
Vacuum Camera
The camera shown is designed to operate in a vacuum environment. It is based on 800 Series electronics and uses a 4K x 4K pixel CCD. The camera operates inside a containment “bubble” at normal atmospheric pressure. Environmental conditions inside the containment vessel are actively monitored to ensure acceptable conditions for camera operation. This design ensured the customer had the utmost flexibility in optimizing the optical path for the experiment.
800 Series 4K X 4K, Large Fiber
The 800 Series of cameras are highly flexible for a number of applications. Shown is an 800 Series camera with a 4kX4k chip, with a large fiber optic taper bonded directly to the CCD. The taper provides a magnification factor of about 2X giving the front a large 163mm diameter input. This particular camera is air cooled and is rated to achieve CCD temperatures of -20°C. The large black plates are used for mounting the camera into the customer's application.
Right Angle Camera
A large spectrograph installed on a telescope needed a unique camera design to accommodate the restricted spatial dimensions available to the CCD camera. Spectral Instruments modified an existing design of a camera similar to the 1100 Series to come up with a right-angle CCD orientation that delivered a large format cryo-cooled CCD camera into the tight spaces of the instrument.
Optical Mosaic
The optical mosaic pictured here displays the unique capability of Spectral Instruments to deliver the largest area imagers tightly coupled side by side in precisely aligned orientations. All sixty-four million pixels in this camera are cooled to cryogenic -100°C temperatures. High QE backthinned CCDs give the maximum quantum efficiency available. High read speeds are capable with up to four ports per CCD readout for the most demanding astronomical observations.
