hr342XGE: A champion in the field with 31 megapixels
The hr342XGE is a technological milestone in camera construction. The camera combines the exceptional image quality of the Sony Pregius 2 sensor with an economical and super fast interface in a compact yet cool housing. It is currently the smallest IMX342 camera with 10 GigE on the market.
Low operating temperature as crucial criterion
The current Sony Pregius 2 IMX342 is currently your best sensor choice if you need a camera with top image quality in the range of 30 megapixels. The relatively large sensor and the performance-hungry 10 GigE interface, though, normally generate a lot of heat, with significant effects on image quality. The hr342, however, works with a particularly low housing temperature, thus allowing an extended temperature range of up to 60°C operating temperature.
Latest technologies in soldering and assembly ensure an excellent thermal connection of the sensor to the compact, milled housing. The excellent heat dissipation, uniform over the entire sensor surface, ensures an unusually low and very homogeneous noise characteristic.
The interface is able to handle the full bandwidth of 10 GigE. Latest PHYs and highly optimized FPGA code enable data transmission with low power dissipation. As a result, the camera can be operated with significantly lower operating temperature than usual for 10 GigE cameras. The low power emission together with optimum heat conductivity through the housing is directly reflected in the noise behaviour and improved dynamics.
Already excellent results in the field
The significantly improved image quality compared to the old 29MP CCD sensors already shows its advantages in real-life applications with the first design ins in the areas of 2D matrix reading and quality control. In particular, the lower noise and the significantly improved color dynamics were of particular importance for the first applications.
hr342 covers a wide range of requirements
In the resolution class around 30MP the 29MP camera with the KA-29050 CCD sensor dominated the market. The new IMX342 CCD shines in nearly all sensor parameters with significantly better characteristics, especially the better dynamic range of 70 dB and improved homogeneity. For the somewhat smaller pixel with 3.45 µm a wide selection of first-class M58 lenses is available off the shelf, covering almost any application - we are pleased to assist you. The small housing often allows easy replacement of the 29050 with an hr342.
10GigE: Super fast and economical
With the 10GigE interface, the hr342XGE has a number of features simplifying many machine vision designs:
- Long cables up to 100 m are supported
- Up to 1.1 GB/s of data can be transmitted
- It allows the use of network switches
- Able to handle GigE, nBase-T and 10 GigE
- No dedicated lines required for image data only
- 10 GigE is standard technology in the server area. Cheap 10 GigE interface boards are available and already standard on servers.
- As a transparently scalable protocol, it has almost the same characteristics as the proven GigE Vision protocol, which has been used millions of times.
CoaXPress and other interfaces
Nevertheless, in some applications there are reasons to use alternative protocols. If you want to keep the speed advantage of the sensor, the alternative is called hr342CX with CoaXPress. Long lines up to 30 m are also supported here. Additionally, CoaXPress offers power-over-CoaXPress, so that the camera can be supplied with power via the data lines. CoaXPress offers outstanding timing accuracy. This feature is necessary for some projects and justifies the higher economic effort with an additional CoaXPress frame grabber. Click here for the data sheet.
USB3 and GigE Vision are alive!
Many applications need the resolution and image quality of an hr342XGE, but not the speed. In this case an investment in high-speed interfaces is not viable. Also for the replacement of existing projects based on the On Semi CCD KA-29050 cameras it is often not expedient to create a 10GigE infrastructure.
For this purpose the IMX342 sensor is also available in the EXO series with cheaper and slower interfaces. The exo342U3 is the USB3 version and the exo342GE is the normal GigE Vision camera. The large sensor requires an M42 mount for both models. Of course, both cameras do not match the speed of their big sister hr342, but offer excellent image quality at an extremely attractive price.