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Operation
TM-1400 Series Progressive Scan Shutter Cameras
3.6 Dynamic Range Control
The typical interline transfer CCD has fixed noise levels based on dark current (thermal or KT noise),
pattern noise, and the operating clock speed. In general, the level of the 50 MHz pixel clock CCD at
room temperature is around 20 to 50 electrons. The maximum capacity of CCD charges is limited by
the well capacity at saturation. The range is limited by the structure and the pixel size.
The TM-1400 uses a 1/2" CCD with 4.65 µm x 4.65 µm pixel and two-phase vertical shift register
structure. The well capacity is 16,000 electrons. The theoretical dynamic range is 16,000:30 = 533:1
(54.5 dB).
A typical CCD camera does not use the full dynamic range due to the nominal gain and the output
specification such as RS-170. The typical CCD camera’s gain is set at 16 to 22 dB and the RS-170
video level is 714 mV. Using 20 dB gain for the calculation, CCD output is limited to 714/10 = 71.4
mV. Since the CCD’s saturation voltage is 400 mV to 500 mV, it uses less than 1/5 of the full dynamic
range.
Machine vision and outdoor applications, cannot afford to miss image information behind the
saturation, which is why the dynamic range adaptation is critical.
3.6.1 Programmable Look-Up Table (LUT) and Knee Control
The TM-1400 has a built-in LUT (look-up table) for dynamic range control.
At a specific gain setting, the offset (minimum level.... dark point) and A/D reference top voltage
(maximum level... saturation point) are set to 10-bit A/D input so that the full dynamic range of the
CCD is utilized at 10-bit references as the input and the LUT output is converted into 8-bit to adjust the
gamma correction.
The 10-bit input is segmented into two or more regions by the knee-point settings as variable gamma
selection.
0
20
40
100
60
120
80
0
200
400
600
FL
Lens: F=5.6
Vsub = 10 V
Vsub = 12 V
Vsub = 14 V
Vsub = 16 V
Vsub = 18 V
CCD OUTPUT VOLTAGE
LUMINANCE
Blooming adj. = 13. 5 V
Digital saturation at 16 dB amp
Analog saturation at 20 dB amp
Max. Digital dynamic range at 3 dB amp
140
160
mV
Vsub = 8 V