rus
Issue #5/2014
Quemesa – 11 MegaPixel TEM CCD Camera
Quemesa is a new Olympus Soft Imaging Solutions’ high-resolution, 11 MegaPixel bottom-mounted CCD camera for transmission electron microscope (TEM). The camera is bottom mounted – on axis of TEM. It is the perfect choice – and the most versatile – for all current TEM applications.
Quemesa provides everything expected of a high-end TEM CCD camera today: the extremely high resolution, very high sensitivity, superior contrast, high frame rates, and a large field of view. The most satisfying aspect of this new CCD TEM camera is that the TEM itself is now the only limiting factor with regard to resolution and sensitivity for most current TEM applications – no longer the camera. Quemesa is the ideal choice both for biomedical and materials science applications.
The Quemesa camera system combines a large, fast sensitive CCD chip with attractively high readout speed, tapered fiber optics fulfilling the most stringent quality demands and a perfectly matched phosphor scintillator.
CCD Chip and tapered fiber-optical coupling
The highly sensitive and fast interline CCD chip provides 4008×2664 pixel resolution with 14-bit dynamic range, a full well capacity of over 60000 electrons and antiblooming of more than 100×.
The 2:1 fiber-optical taper provides the highest quality. This increases effective pixel size to 18×18μm. In combination with the optimized scintillator thickness, this ensures optimal resolution and sensitivity.
Read-out modes and binning
Quemesa’s very fast single port read-out supports high frame rates of more than 12 fps, making it much more convenient to scan and focus on the PC monitor. The use of single port readout ensures a homogeneous CCD response over the whole readout area. Even when in the highest quality mode (full resolution) the camera provides more than 2 fps. This camera provides superb dynamic range and sensitivity no matter which resolution mode is employed.
Quemesa supports several binning modes: binning 1 to binning 4. Using the binning mode means increasing the frame rates and sensitivity. At binning 2 the Quemesa offers up to 2004×1332 pixels with up to 3.6 fps, while at binning 4 (1002×666 pixels) 12 fps can be achieved.
High sensitivity and stability
Due to highly efficient conversion of primary electrons in the scintillator and optimized electronics design, the Quemesa system gains a near perfect signal-to-noise ratio, resulting in very high sensitivity. This enables you to view your samples on your monitor at beam intensities so low it would normally prevent seeing an image on the TEM viewing screen. The finest detail is still shown perfectly in the camera image.
The CCD chip of the Quemesa is Peltier-cooled and stabilized at a temperature of 20°C. What is even more crucial is that this is achieved by a small dedicated, smart water cooling system which does not interfere with the TEM cooling system. No external connections to the microscope are necessary as the circuit is fully closed and safe.
Software integration
Quemesa is completely integrated with iTEM, Olympus Soft Imaging Solutions’ TEM imaging platform. This guarantees numerous real-time functions such as real-time shading correction, real-time gray-value histograms, automatic contrast enhancement as well as Fast Fourier Transformation during live image acquisition. Furthermore, iTEM offers functions such as image labeling, image processing, archiving, analysis and report generation. ■
The Quemesa camera system combines a large, fast sensitive CCD chip with attractively high readout speed, tapered fiber optics fulfilling the most stringent quality demands and a perfectly matched phosphor scintillator.
CCD Chip and tapered fiber-optical coupling
The highly sensitive and fast interline CCD chip provides 4008×2664 pixel resolution with 14-bit dynamic range, a full well capacity of over 60000 electrons and antiblooming of more than 100×.
The 2:1 fiber-optical taper provides the highest quality. This increases effective pixel size to 18×18μm. In combination with the optimized scintillator thickness, this ensures optimal resolution and sensitivity.
Read-out modes and binning
Quemesa’s very fast single port read-out supports high frame rates of more than 12 fps, making it much more convenient to scan and focus on the PC monitor. The use of single port readout ensures a homogeneous CCD response over the whole readout area. Even when in the highest quality mode (full resolution) the camera provides more than 2 fps. This camera provides superb dynamic range and sensitivity no matter which resolution mode is employed.
Quemesa supports several binning modes: binning 1 to binning 4. Using the binning mode means increasing the frame rates and sensitivity. At binning 2 the Quemesa offers up to 2004×1332 pixels with up to 3.6 fps, while at binning 4 (1002×666 pixels) 12 fps can be achieved.
High sensitivity and stability
Due to highly efficient conversion of primary electrons in the scintillator and optimized electronics design, the Quemesa system gains a near perfect signal-to-noise ratio, resulting in very high sensitivity. This enables you to view your samples on your monitor at beam intensities so low it would normally prevent seeing an image on the TEM viewing screen. The finest detail is still shown perfectly in the camera image.
The CCD chip of the Quemesa is Peltier-cooled and stabilized at a temperature of 20°C. What is even more crucial is that this is achieved by a small dedicated, smart water cooling system which does not interfere with the TEM cooling system. No external connections to the microscope are necessary as the circuit is fully closed and safe.
Software integration
Quemesa is completely integrated with iTEM, Olympus Soft Imaging Solutions’ TEM imaging platform. This guarantees numerous real-time functions such as real-time shading correction, real-time gray-value histograms, automatic contrast enhancement as well as Fast Fourier Transformation during live image acquisition. Furthermore, iTEM offers functions such as image labeling, image processing, archiving, analysis and report generation. ■
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