pco.panda 4.2 back illuminated (bi), a state-of-the-art sCMOS camera

22 Feb 2018

German-based sCMOS pioneer PCO has just introduced the latest addition to its camera family at San Francisco’s SPIE Photonics West exhibition: the pco.panda 4.2 bi (back illuminated). Only one year ago, the predecessor pco.panda 4.2 with a front illuminated sensor had its first public appearance there.

PCO´s sCMOS family, being the most versatile scientific imaging portfolio on the market, is renowned for its extremely low readout noise of 1.0 e- med, high resolution of up to 5.5 megapixels and dynamic ranges up to 30000:1. Furthermore, maximum frame rates of 100 fps with exposure times from 500 µs to 2 s have proven themselves internationally since their introduction.

The unique aspect about pco.panda 4.2 bi: PCO is the first company worldwide bringing back illuminated sCMOS cameras with nearly perfect quantum efficiency in an ultra-compact design onto the market. Alongside pre-existing cutting-edge sCMOS technology features of the camera’s family members – pco.panda 4.2 and pco.edge series – it reaches a quantum efficiency of up to 95 %. This makes the camera perfectly suited for low light conditions without the need for active cooling. The high resolution of 2048 x 2048 pixels with 6.5µm² pixel size allow great detail diversity and highly qualitative images. The addition of the USB 3.1 interface provides direct power delivery via USB cable. On top of that, pco.panda 4.2 bi comes in a small form factor camera design of only 65 x 65 x 65 mm³.

PCO’s renowned sCMOS features and the camera’s compact dimensions make the pco.panda 4.2 bi of peculiar interest for microscopy and life science technology: pco.panda cameras especially see their use in the fields of Structured Illumination Microscopy (SIM), Localization Microscopy (PALM, STORM, dSTORM, GSD...) as well as DNA paint and a broad range of further microscopy and life science applications.

 Mr. Murad Karmali, General Manager of PCO Imaging Asia and Suzhou PCO Imaging Technology, joined PCO at this year’s SPIE Photonics West and witnessed pco.panda 4.2 bi’s official introduction: “When we first introduced the pco.panda 4.2 at the last Photonics West, there was tremendous interest as PCO again was pioneering a new sensor and design approach with pco.panda 4.2. At this year’s Photonics West, we expanded the product line to include a new back illuminated version of the panda featuring a higher quantum efficiency but in a compact camera package making it an ideal camera for fluorescence or low-light applications and bio-medical instruments. We do plan on showing the pco.panda 4.2 bi also at the Vision China show scheduled for March 2018 in Shanghai in addition to other conferences throughout the year.”

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