Digital high-resolution high-performance CCD camera with 2048 x 2048 pixels for dynamic applications

Abstract

A modular, multi-channel digital camera system has been designed.It provides a platform for the investigation of high-speed, high-resolution CCD sensors that are suited for dynamic medical x-ray imaging. The system supports frame rates from 30 frames per second (fps) for images with 1024 X 1024 pixels and 6-8 fps for images with 2048 X 2048 pixels. The complete system comprises camera head and correction circuits and yields a consecutive output stream of data. The camera electronics permits the testing of sensors with up to four parallel readout channels. It offers a variable bandwidth of up to 25 MHz per channel with a digitization resolution of 12 bits. The modulatory and programmability allow the adaptation of the camera system to a wide range of interesting applications. The camera electronics consists of a majority of sensor independent and a relatively small section of sensor dependent components. A detailed description of the camera, methods for performance analysis, measurement results, images, and a noise analysis are presented and discussed. As an example, linearity, MTF and noise of the camera system equipped with the FTF2020, a 2k X 2k CCD sensor from Phillips Professional Imaging have ben measured. The noise contains fixed pattern and random components. The developed camera architecture is capable of fulfilling the high requirements of dynamic, high-resolution medical imaging.