XIMEA, the pioneer in camera miniaturization, has prepared for production the smallest industrial USB3 imager with the highest resolution yet.
It started with camera models based on 5 Mpix sensors using USB 2.0 interface and now XIMEA made accessible for the general public the first miniature cameras with On Semiconductor CMOS sensor providing 18 Mpix at more than 20 Fps. The newcomer called MU181 is a part of the xiMU line of industrial USB3 cameras enhanced with the ever popular USB 3.1 Gen1 interface.
All mini cam models from the xiMU family have the same front side housing format of mere 15 x 15 mm and can be equipped with S-mount lenses (M12) or C-mount through attaching a simple adapter. In the case of the MU181 model the back side comes in two versions, one with USB Type-C connector and the other with a flexible flat ribbon cable – FFC, making it suitable for embedded systems or multi camera setups.
After an extensive search for tiny enough imaging sensor, the OnSemi AR1820HS color sensor with 4896 x 3680 pixels was chosen. The fusion with the USB3 interface allows the camera to reach the impressive speed of 22 Fps at 8 bits and 14 Fps at 12 bits. A further increase is possible through the ROI feature (Region of interest) or Binning up to 4x4.
These USB3 cameras are easily synchronized and triggered through GPIO while remaining bus powered via USB without the need for additional cables. The power consumption, as with all xiMU models, stays exceptionally low at 1.5 Watt. This together with the compact size and weight of just 5 grams makes these cameras ideal candidates for portable or mobile applications in UAV or other types of drones.
The free of charge XIMEA API/SDK supports Windows, MacOS and enables the utilization of the cameras with various options of NVIDIA Jetson boards running under Linux, thus further minimizing the systems footprint.
