Cypress Semiconductor has launched the 3 Megapixel Lupa-3000 CMOS sensor offering 13.2Gb/s pixel rate, a triggered and pipelined synchronous shutter and a high frame rate of 485fps with windowing capability for undistorted images and fast readout. The sensor also features on-chip digital LVDS (Low Voltage Differential Signalling) outputs that simplify the transport of sensor data and overall camera design for machine vision and holographic data storage applications.
The Lupa-3000 features a fully synchronous snapshot shutter, making it possible to read one image while the next is being acquired and to capture moving objects without distortion. The sensor has 32, 8-bit digital LVDS outputs that allow image data to be transferred over longer distances on the circuit board, thus simplifying layout. The windowing capability enables the user to read out only regions of interest in the image, increasing the effective frame rate. It also has a dual slope capability to maintain good contrast in shadowed regions without saturating bright areas in scenes with a high contrast ratio.
The Lupa-3000 has 1,696 x 1,710 pixels with 8 x 8µm pixel size. The image sensor integrates a programmable offset and gain amplifier for each channel of the LVDS outputs. Each channel runs at a 206MHz pixel rate, which results in 485fps frame rate at full resolution. Higher frame rates can be achieved by windowed or sub-sampled readout modes, which are all programmable over the SPI interface. All internal exposure and read-out timings are generated by an on-board sequencer. The intra-scene dynamic range can be increased by using the flexible dual slope operation mode. The Lupa-3000 also features an 8-bit on-chip analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) for digital output and on-chip timing control for easy application development.
