Useful tool for TDI instrument developers plus a wide-spectral range camera
Hamamatsu’s new TDI engine is used to investigate time delay integration (TDI) cameras. Butch Moomaw explained that in a TDI setup the microscope slide on a stage is moved precisely in time with the integration onthe camera’s CCD. This allows scanning a large area quickly, and the speed is only limited by the speed of the positioning stage. While the company has had these cameras for some time, customers would have to build a setup to test for which camera would work best for their application. Thus the TDI engine is very useful for those developing newsystems such as digital slide storage systems, flow cytometry instruments, and other systems that use TDI cameras. The stage can be synched with manydifferent TDI cameras. The company was also showing its new ORCA-R2 camera. This camera cost less than $20,000 yet has 12 and 16 bit digitization, 14 and 28 megapixel clocking, and an extended range. The camera features an ER-150 CCD image sensor that responds to a wide spectral range and has especially high sensitivity in the visible and near-infrared regions.