A high speed camera system based on an image sensor in standard CMOS technology

In this contribution a novel camera system developed for high speed imaging will be presented. The core of the system consists of a CMOS image sensor manufactured in a 1 μm standard CMOS process. The special merit of the image sensor is the capability to acquire more than 1000 frames/s using a global electronic shutter in each sensor cell. The image sensor itself is embedded in a sensor board that has been developed for digitizing the sensor´s single serial analog output signal as well as for supplying the sensor with all control signals necessary for proper operation. Both the control signals and the digital output signal (RS-422) are generated on a FPGA-chip. Moreover, a graphical user interface adapted to the frame grabber card used (Matrox Pulsar) has been developed for the purposes of monitoring, high speed acquisition, and image processing