PCO – three decades as Pioneer in Camera and Optoelectronics
PCO is a Pioneer in Cameras and Optoelectronics with more than 30 years of expert knowledge and experience developing and manufacturing high-end camera systems. PCO has forged ahead to becoming a leading specialist and innovator in digital imaging used in scientific and industrial applications.
In-house competence of all significant technical disciplines and partnering with leading image sensor manufacturers ensures cutting edge sCMOS and high-speed imaging technology. The company’s customers’ input has a direct path back to its product development and support teams, enabling constant advancements of hardware and software.
PCO’s worldwide entities ensure that its cameras are developed and supported in a way that meets the user’s applications. From its inception in 1987 to present day, PCO has been growing continuously and striven to improve its position as a global supplier by being geographically closer to its customers. To that end, PCO operates subsidiaries in the USA, Canada, Singapore and China along with its headquarters in Germany.
PCO supports the constant advancement of science and industry by relentlessly pursuing technological perfection. The company’s cameras are used in scientific and industrial research, automotive testing, quality control, metrology and a large variety of other applications worldwide.
PCO introduces the new pco.dicam C1 as the first intensifies camera system to exploit the full performance inherent to scientific CMOS sensor technology. The camera features optical coupling of 25 mm high resolution image intensifiers, an excellent high efficiency tandem lens system, and a 16 bit 4 MPix sCMOS sensor.
PCO will introduce its latest camera innovation: the pco.panda 4.2 back illuminated, a state-of-the-art sCMOS camera featuring the same compact 65 x 65 x 65 mm dimensions of the renowned pco.panda. PCO’s new back-illuminated sensor provides outstanding quantum efficiency, up to 95%.
PCO's scientific CMOS (sCMOS) cameras feature high-resolution, high quantum efficiency, high frame rates, high dynamic range, and availability with various interface options. They are designed to provide low latency, low jitter,and real-time signals between a camera and frame grabber.
The potential imaging applications involving car safety testing are numerous. With built-in image calibration, a quick-change lens adapter, and secure synchronization capabilities in multi-camera environments, the pco.dimax cs high speed cameras are well-equipped to handle them all.
PCO’s high speed CMOS camera series delivers extremely fast frame rates, high resolution, and a variety of operational and trigger modes. They are well suited for applications involving airbag inflation, combustion research, ballistics testing, and other high speed camera applications. The pco.dimax HS is available in three different types: the S models, HD/HD+ models, and HS models.
The pco.flim camera system is the first luminescence lifetime imaging camera designed to use a two tap CMOS image sensor. It is purposed for a wide variety of life science applications including biomarkers, sensing, and fluorescence lifetime imaging.
The new pco.pixelfly usb is a high performance digital 14 bit CCD camera system specially designed for low light applications in the spectral range of visible light if a small form factor is required. This compact digital CCD camera system is perfectly suited for many scientific and industrial imaging applications including microscopy, spectroscopy, and quality control.
The pco.ultraviolet is a 14bit CCD camera ideal for UV detection, luminescence spectroscopy, hyperspectral imaging, material testing, wafer inspection, mask inspection, spectroscopy, machine vision, high resolution microscopy, scientific imaging, low light level imaging, combustion imaging, and industrial OEM applications.
PCO-TECH Inc.
6930 Metroplex Drive
Romulus, MI 48174
UNITED STATES
Phone: 248-276-8820
Fax: 248-276-8825
Contact: info@pco-tech.com
PCO AG
Donaupark 11
93309 Kelheim, Germany
fon +49 (0)9441 2005 50
fax +49 (0)9441 2005 20
info@pco.de
www.pco.de
PCO Imaging Asia Pte.
3 Temasek Ave
Centennial Tower, Level 34
Singapore, 039190
fon +65-6549-7054
fax +65-6549-7001
info@pco-imaging.com
www.pco-imaging.com
Image intensifiers are used to increase the intensity of available light in a system to enable better image reproduction in low light environments. However, the question remains as to if this technology is necessary in light of vast advancements in camera technologies. This white paper investigates the challenges that necessitate the application of image intensification technologies and covers a variety of methods, including the next generation of intensified imaging.
“Binning” is defined as the combination of the charge carrier content of two or more pixels of an image sensor to form a new so-called super pixel. This white paper discusses the reasons for the difference of “binning” in CMOS and CCD technologies and how it improves the signal-to-noise ratio.
Backside illuminated image sensors have fewer obstacles in the pathway of the incoming light as it reaches the volume of the pixel, where the conversion to charge carriers takes place. As a result, backside illuminated CMOS image sensors are able to convert more of the light into charge carriers, resulting in larger signals and better images.
The presence of any foreign material in food products could be a disastrous outcome for any company. This white paper discusses the use of high-resolution cameras for food inspection and the benefits that it offers over other types of inspections.
The amount of image data that must be transferred to computers for storage and processing is continuously increasing in all fields of application. The demand for fast, reliable data transfer increases in turn. This white paper discusses the progression of camera interfaces, and how they are continuously improved to enable reliable streaming data transfer from the camera to the computer.
Thomas Bauersachs with pco.tech explains what dynamic range is as it relates to a camera’s capabilities and specifications. Watch the video to better understand its importance and how it can affect your imaging application.
Thomas Bauersachs with pco.tech took time out of day one of Photonics West 2018 to show us their new back-illuminated sensor-based pco.panda – an sCMOS camera featuring up to 95% quantum efficiency.
This video shows the principle of photoluminescence in the time domain (pulsed excitation) and in the frequency domain (continuous, modulated excitation) using the pco.flim – a specialized camera for luminescence lifetime measurements in the frequency domain. The corresponding waveforms of light, shaped and delayed by a reflective target and a photoluminescent sample, are visualized.
During electron beam welding, the high energy concentration causes the material to melt, which forms plasma. The escaping plasma creates a channel as it “drills” into the depth of the workpiece and forms the welded seam as it cools. The sequence shown in this video has been attained using 9,000 fps with the exposure matched to the actual welding process.
High-speed camera users demand cameras that work accurately under the harshest environmental conditions, making reliability and operational capability crucial considerations in scientific cameras. This video shows a combustion analysis application, using a pco.dimax high-speed camera, at the Robert Bosch GmbH in Stuttgart.
