QHYCCD QHY294C 11.6MP Cooled Color CMOS Telescope Astrophotography Camera – QHY294C QHYCCD

The QHY294C uses a 4/3-inch back-illuminated cooled color CMOS sensor, 14-bit A/D. 6,8e readout noise in lowest gain settings, 1.6e- read noise near unity gain and 1e- read noise at highest gain. This camera is a dedicated cooled camera with high performance for both QE, dark current and readout noise.

Benefiting from the back-illuminated structure, the area around the photo-diode is reduced so that for a given pixel size the BSI sensor provides a greater full well capacity compared to a front illuminated sensor. The QHY294C has a full well capacity of nearly 65,000 electrons with 4.63um x 4.63um pixels, almost the same as an interline CCD camera with 9um pixels.

The QHY294C produces 16.5 high resolution frames per second, 11.6 Megapixels with 14-bit A/D. Higher rates are achieved in ROI mode, for example, 41 FPS at 1080 lines.

The QHY294C uses QHYCCD’s proprietary low dark current control technology. This technology significantly reduces the dark current noise in our CMOS cameras. The QHY294C has super low dark current as a result, lower than many CCD cameras, allowing for very long exposure times.

The QHY294C’s CMOS sensor has a dual gain mode, HGC (high gain) and LGC (Low gain). The QHY294C will switch the two modes automatically when the gain is set to 1600 you will get the benefits of the ultra low read noise (1e- to 1.6e-) of the HGC mode and a full well capacity of about 14.5ke- at the switch point setting.

The QHY294C benefits from more than a decade of cooled camera design experience. QHYCCD has implemented full dew control solutions. The optical window has a built-in dew heater and the CMOS chamber is protected from internal humidity condensation.

The QHY294C has the same body design and mechanical interface and the QHY163. It has a short back focal distance allowing the use of QHYCCD’s 0.5mm-27mm spacers (step size 0.5mm) for flexibility in setting up your optical train.

The QHY294C has an internal 256MByte high speed DDR3 image buffer. This is more than enough for one frame and it significantly reduces any issue of lost frames due to a busy computer CPU or slow USB communication packet errors.

About the IMX294 Sensor

The Sony Starvis IMX294CJK Exmor R is a 21.63 mm diagonal (Type 4/3), 10.7 megapixel, back-illuminated color CMOS sensor. Sony has commercialized the IMX294CJK Type 4/3 back-illuminated CMOS image sensor for low light applications. The IMX294CJK is the first in-house image sensor to adopt the Type 4/3 format and realize output of the number of pixels needed for 4K video at 120 frame/s (in ADC 10-bit output mode). In addition, use of a large-size pixel achieves SNR1s of 0.14 lx, and use of a Quad Bayer pixel structure realizes a High Dynamic Range function with no time difference, enabling video imaging with a wide dynamic range.

STARVIS is a trademark of Sony Corporation. The STARVIS is back-illuminated pixel technology used in CMOS image sensors for low light applications and realizes high picture quality in the visible-light and near infrared light regions.

Exmor R is a Sony’s CMOS image sensor with significantly enhanced imaging characteristics including sensitivity and low noise by changing fundamental structure of Exmor™ pixel adopted column parallel A/D converter to back-illuminated type.

Supports Type 4/3 4K output

The IMX294CJK adopts Type 4/3 as the optical size, and supports various output formats (angle of view) including 10M (3704 × 2778) for aspect ratio 4:3, UHD (3840 × 2160) for 16:9, and 4096 × 2160 for 17:9. In addition, the A/D converter can be selected from 10 bits, 12 bits, and 14 bits according to the application.
Exceptional low-illumination performance 
Exceptional low-illumination performance of SNR1s: 0.14 lx is realized by use of a large-size optical system and by expanding the area per pixel to 4.63 um. This makes the IMX294CJK ideal for applications that require low-illumination performance.

Quad Bayer Coding HDR

The IMX294CJK uses a Quad Bayer structure, and outputs data binned in 2 × 2 pixel units in normal mode. In HDR mode, integration can be divided into long-time integration and short-time integration for each 2 pixels in the Quad array. In this case there is no time difference between long-time integration and short-time integration, which realizes HDR with little blending offset when imaging moving subjects.

 

 

Specifications

Model	QHY294C
CMOS Sensor	SONY IMX294 BSI CMOS
AR Coating On Sensor	Yes
Pixel Size	4.63um * 4.63um
Effective Pixel Area	4164 * 2796
Effective Pixels	11.6 MP
Effective Image Area	19.28mm * 12.95mm
Fullwell	65ke-
AD Sample Depth	14bit (output as 16bit and 8bit)
Sensor Size	Typical 4/3″
Full Frame Rate and ROI Frame Rate	4164*2796 16.5FPS@14BIT 2160lines (eg.4164*2160,4096*2160) 21FPS 1080lines (eg.4164*2160,1920*2160) 41FPS 960lines (eg.4164*960,1280*960) 46FPS 768lines (eg.4164*768,1024*768) 56FPS 480lines (eg.4164*480,640*480) 87FPS 240lines (eg.4164*240,320*240) 156FPS 100lines (eg.4164*100,240*100) 290FPS *Note: QHYCCD has optimized the CMOS drive frequency and limited the max frame rate. The CMOS sensor may not work under the maximum frequency to ensure the better noise performance. If you need the customized higher frame rate version please contact QHYCCD.
Readout Noise	1.6e – 1.0e@HGC moe  6.8 – 4.2e@LGC mode
Dark Current	0.005e/pixel/s@-20C    0.007e/pixel/s@-15C  0.009e/pixel/s@-10C
Exposure Time Range	60us – 3600sec
Anti-Glow Control	Yes
Shutter Type	Electric Rolling Shutter
Computer Interface	USB 3.0
Built-in Image Buffer	256MB DDR3 memory
Cooling System	Dual Stage TEC cooler（about -30 to -35C below ambient）
Anti-Dew Heater	Yes
Telescope Interface	M42/0.75
Optic Window Type	AR+AR High Quality Multi-Layer Anti-Reflection Coating (For color camera user need to add a UV/IR filter in the light path)
Back Focal Length	17mm（±0.5）
Weight	650g