Dione 320 has been announced today as the new member of the long-wave infrared (LWIR) SWaP core from Xenics.
Xenics is Europe’s leading developer and manufacturer of advanced infrared sensors, cameras, and customized imaging solutions from the short-wave infrared (SWIR) to the LWIR realm.
Dione 320 is a QVGA (320x240) LWIR camera core optimized to meet today’s increased demand for smaller size, lower weight, lower power and low cost (SWaP-C) with the highest performance. It is the entrance point to LWIR core for the safety and security market as well as industrial applications. Dione 320 is a new brick of the Dione family of uncooled LWIR solutions which completes the LWIR offer from Xenics.
Xenics keeps the pace for 2022
After 2 new products were released since the beginning of 2022 (Ceres V family), Xenics’ team keeps on increasing the IR offer to give a solution to each customer’s demand.
Xenics’ IR SWaP family enable scaling up and down solution
Xenics SWaP LWIR family already includes VGA (640x480 pixels) and SXGA (1280x1024 pixels) products that offer high performance with ultra-low size, weight and power consumption. The new Dione 320 now pushes the boundaries by including a very low-cost solution while keeping the high performances which characterise all the Dione family members.
Dione 320 is the entrance point to high performing and SWaP optimized LWIR when cost is paramount, but performance is requested. It is based on a 12 µm last generation microbolometer sensor and benefits from all the developments of the rest of the Dione family such as an advanced shutterless algorithm and ultra-low latency (less than 100 µs from the sensor to the output). Xenics thus proposes a global family that enables customers to design a high-performing LWIR system and possibly scale it up to high-resolution with Dione 1280 or down to low-cost Dione 320 with very limited effort. Indeed, as members of the same family, all Dione products share similar electrical interfaces and command and control characteristics. Only the number of pixels is different.
Pieter Deroo, LWIR Product Line Manager and Camera Director at Xenics says: “All our efforts were focused on simplifying the development for our customer. The family concept means that we took charge of the adaptation-related to sensors so that customers can just use the same design whatever the chosen Dione is.”
Dione 320 offers high sensitivity (50 mK), is shutterless only and configured as OEM (Dione 320 OEM) or embedded in a housing with M24 or M34 optical interface (Dione 320 CAM).
The SAMTEC ST5 connector is supporting the 16-bit digital output (compatible with CameraLinkTM protocol), the command and control (including triggering capabilities) and the power supply. Thanks to the similarities with the previous Dione family members and a GenICam compliant SDK, Dione 320 integration in systems is straightforward.
Dione 320 is the solution for entering the high-performance SWaP LWIR applications:
- for cost-optimized hand-held thermal imagers (HHTI) and thermal weapon sights (TWS)
- for small drone accurate observation where customers will benefit from the ultra-light camera and will be able to develop a very low-cost platform
- for cost-optimized industrial applications where customers will benefit from its high sensitivity
