[Table of Contents]

Plasma and Fusion Research

Volume 2, S1021 (2007)

Regular Articles

Evolution of Ultra-High-Speed CCD Imagers
T. Goji ETOH1,2), Cuong VO LE1), Yuichi HASHISHIN1), Nao OTSUKA1), Kohsei TAKEHARA1), Hiroshi OHTAKE2), Tetsuya HAYASHIDA2) and Hirotaka MARUYAMA2)
1)
School of Science and Engineering, Kinki University, Higashi-Osaka 577-8502, Japan
2)
NHK Science and Technical Research Laboratories, Tokyo 157-8510, Japan
(Received 9 December 2006 / Accepted 11 April 2007 / Published 20 November 2007)

Abstract

This paper reviews the high-speed video cameras developed by the authors. A video camera operating at 4,500 frames per second (fps) was developed in 1991. The partial and parallel readout scheme combined with fully digital memory with overwriting function enabled the world fastest imaging at the time. The basic configuration of the camera later became a de facto standard of high-speed video cameras. A video camera mounting an innovative image sensor achieved 1,000,000 fps in 2001. In-situ storage with more than 100 CCD memory elements is installed in each pixel of the sensor, which is capable of recording image signals in all pixels in parallel. Therefore, the sensor was named ISIS, the in-situ storage image sensor. The ultimate parallel recording operation promises the theoretical maximum frame rate. A sequence of more than one hundred consecutive images reproduces a smoothly moving image at 10 fps for more than 10 seconds. Currently, an image sensor with ultrahigh sensitivity is being developed in addition to the ultra-high frame rate, named PC-ISIS, the photon-counting ISIS, for microscopic biological observation. Some other technologies supporting the ultra-high-speed imaging developed are also presented.

Keywords

high speed, high sensitivity, imager, video camera, ISIS, image sensor

DOI: 10.1585/pfr.2.S1021

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References

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This paper may be cited as follows:

T. Goji ETOH, Cuong VO LE, Yuichi HASHISHIN, Nao OTSUKA, Kohsei TAKEHARA, Hiroshi OHTAKE, Tetsuya HAYASHIDA and Hirotaka MARUYAMA, Plasma Fusion Res. 2, S1021 (2007).