Princeton Instruments has released its PIoNIR:640 camera that uses a deep-cooled indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) focal plane array.
The PIoNIR is designed for use in low-light near infrared (NIR) or shortwave infrared (SWIR) imaging and spectroscopy applications that require high sensitivity from 0.9µm to 1.7µm. PIoNIR applications range from nanotube fluorescence imaging to photovoltaic (PV) inspection.
Previous InGaAs cameras required liquid nitrogen to achieve deep cooling but vacuum technology developed at Princeton means the PIoNIR:640 can reach minus 90°C using thermoelectric cooling. The PIoNIR:640 uses a 640 x 512 InGaAs array with a peak quantum efficiency greater than 80 per cent with the thermoelectric cooling. It also has low-noise readout electronics to deliver the highest possible sensitivity.
Ravi Guntupalli, product manager for Princeton Instruments’ imaging group said: ‘The PIoNIR sets a new performance benchmark, enabling novel research and industrial applications in diverse life and physical science areas such as semiconductor failure inspection, singlet oxygen imaging, photoluminescence imaging of PV materials, NIR fluorescence and absorbance, and deep tissue imaging.’