Vision Research, manufacturer of Phantom High-Speed cameras, has introduced the Phantom S640 which leverages the Phantom CMOS sensor used in the popular VEO640 camera and provides up to 6 Gpx/sec (75 Gbps) of streaming data and images for machine vision applications.

The S640 gives demanding machine vision applications the frame rates they need, reaching 1,480 fps at full 4 Mpx resolution of 2560 x 1600 and up to 200,715 fps at lower resolutions. The S640 has many similar characteristics to the VEO640, including high image quality and high frame rates at 4Mpx resolution, but its output is not confined to the camera’s RAM.

“We’re excited to bring the benefits of the Phantom S640 to a wide variety of Machine Vision applications, especially those that need to access and analyze the high-speed data immediately and can’t wait for downloading from the camera’s memory, as well as those events and processes that run longer than standard camera RAM can manage,” said Dan Hafen, director of business development for Machine Vision Cameras at Vision Research.

The Phantom S640 joins a growing family of Phantom Machine Vision Cameras as Vision Research continues to bring the benefits of its traditional Phantom High-Speed cameras to the Machine Vision platform. It joins the Phantom S990, based on the cinema quality Phantom 4K sensor, as well as the S210 and S200, based on the Phantom Miro C210, which is used in automotive, industrial and scientific applications. The S640 sensor, the same used in the VEO640, has a 10 micron pixel size, larger than many Machine Vision cameras. Larger pixels are typically more light sensitive than smaller pixels, an important factor in high speed imaging. The S640 has an ISO rating of 6500 for monochrome and 1250 for color.

To support high quality imaging, it also has 12-bits, a noise level of 20.5e- and dynamic range of 55.9dB. The camera also features a general-purpose input/output (GPIO) for fast, flexible signaling and synchronization. It includes signals beneficial in standard high-speed applications, such as Time Code In and Out, as well as signals commonly found in streaming applications.

The S640 streams at high frame rates using CXP6 protocol. Like the Phantom S990 released last year, the S640 has four banks of four CXP6 connections each. Each bank connects to a 4-port frame grabber, or two banks can connect to an 8-port frame grabber. Once the frame grabbers receive the data, the image is stitched together and processed with any other customer algorithms. The data can be analyzed immediately or stored in a long-record DVR for post analysis. The S640 is compatible with any PCIe3 CXP6 frame grabber. However, frame grabber manufacturer, Euresys, has made the stitching function easier by incorporating it into the software of their Euresys 8-port Octo board.

For applications that do not require the full 6Gpx/sec throughput, the S640 can also provide only 2Gpx/sec of data by using only one bank of ports, or 4GPx/sec of data with two banks. It can also save data transfer rates by switching to 8-bit mode.

Key specifications of the Phantom S640 include

• Up to 6 Gpx/second (75 Gbps) of streaming capability
• 1,480 fps at 2,560 x 1,600 and 2,340 fps at 1,920 x 1,280
• 4-megapixel CMOS sensor in color or monochrome
• 10-µm pixel size
• 12-bit or 8-bit data transfer
• Up to 4 banks of 4 CXP ports
• CXP6 and GenICam compliant