Imec, a company based in Leuven, Belgium conducting research in nanoelectronics, has released a hyperspectral camera solution based on a system-on-chip image sensor with an integrated hyperspectral sensor. The solution is fast and enables small and cost-efficient camera-solutions. It targets multiple industrial vision applications.
Imec’s fully integrated CMOS compatible hyperspectral sensor consists of a set of spectral filters that are directly post-processed at wafer level on top of a commercially available Cmosis CMV4000 image sensor (a 4 Megapixel sensor with a maximum frame rate of 180fps). The hyperspectral filter, developed at Imec, has 100 spectral bands between 560nm and 1,000nm. The filter bandwidth (Full Width Half Max) ranges from 3nm at 560nm to 20nm at 1,000nm, and the transmission efficiency of the filters is around 85 per cent.
Typical integration times used in the current prototype setup are between 2 and 10 milliseconds under halogen light illumination of 450 Watt. This indicates maximal frame rates can be achieved of up to 500fps.
Due to its integrated filter design and high spectral filter efficiency, Imec’s solution can obtain scanning speeds that are compatible with real industrial requirements. The speed of the demonstrated system corresponds to an equivalent speed of 2,000 lines per second, significantly exceeding current state-of-the-art hyperspectral sensors.
Moreover, Imec’s technology can be adapted to a range of industrial vision applications. Various sensor parameters can be selected and the hyperspectral filter can be tuned by changing the number of spectral bands and their spectral resolution.
