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To use smaller and even lower cost optics, it is attractive to go below the 1/2” sensor size, for instance 1/3” CCD image sensors.  Not only does the image sensor performance go down, but the available optics quality also decreases.

The cladding is the material wrapped around the core. It can be constructed from glass or plastic, and has a different density to the core. Its purpose is to prevent the light from escaping. When light inside the fibre hits the cladding, it is reflected back into the core in a process known as total internal reflection, and continues along its journey.

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Our optical networking and wavelength services deliver low latency, high capacity connectivity solutions to businesses across the UK. They are designed for flexibility, and deployed to meet your exacting connectivity needs.

High-end applications, such as long range targeting or in very low light, which are moving to full-HD resolution will still require 2/3” sensors.  Over the last few years, there have been dramatic improvements in Qe and read noise of image sensors to make 1/2” full-HD sensors with the sensitivity required for many applications.  In parallel with the sensor improvements, there have been many developments in 1/2” long focal range optics and zoom optics as a necessary complement.

Sensorsize comparison

A free-space optic network transmits data between two line-of-sight points across air, space or a vacuum. No physical connection is needed between the transmitter and the receiver, as the light simply travels through free space.

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This is the fastest way to transmit and receive data, and an optical network allows reliable electronic communications to take place over extremely long distances. Also, when compared with copper, an optical network is far less prone to external inference and can achieve substantially higher bandwidth speeds.

Optical fibre networking provides many advantages for businesses, particularly when compared to copper wire. Benefits include:

We can provide you with a choice of optical connectivity bandwidths, from 10Gbps, 100Gbps and 400Gbps, with a focus on high capacity, long distance networks, and support for Ethernet, Fiberchannel and Infiniband. Whatever your optical networking requirements, we can help.

Teledyne Adimec is an ISO 9001:2015 certified medium- sized company that designs and produces reliable industrial cameras in small batches to meet customer demands at global OEMs. We serve three strategic markets. – Machine Vision, Healthcare and Global Security.

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The core is the innermost layer of the fibre. This is the part that the light travels through and is typically made of glass.

A fibre optic network, as the name suggests, uses optical fibre to carry the data signal between the light source and the receiver.

Optical fibre cable is constructed from bundles of individual optical fibres. Each individual fibre is the medium that the light travels through, divided into multiple optical wavelengths. Optical fibre cable consists of two constituent parts, the core and the cladding.

Next-generation optical networks are focused on ultra-high data throughput to support ever-increasing traffic demands, as well as improving energy efficiency and simplifying network design and deployment. These next-generation technologies will support transmission rates of multiple terabits of data per second, with the ability to scale up beyond 10Tbps and travel distances of up to 1,000km.

The light source transmitting the signal and the receiver capturing it are both known as transceivers. These transceivers can be tuned down to reduce their performance. This reduces the total bandwidth capacity, but it also allows the signal to be carried over a greater distance without any noticeable degradation.

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In the near future 1/3” full-HD image sensors may become more interesting as the optics are improved to allow for additional reductions in SWaP-C.  Further testing may show that rolling shutter is acceptable in outdoor, moving applications with higher frame rates, such as 100 fps, so that the blurring effect is not evident.

Optical networking is a system of communication that uses pulses of light, instead of pulses of electricity. These light pulses are created by a laser or LED light source, and send information between two or more points.

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Convergence and access will form the foundations of next-generation optical networking. With lower latency, enhanced reliability and heightened security, these networks will be ideally suited to handle the heavy demands of edge networking, 8K video streaming services, and the metaverse as it merges with industry 4.0. In addition, next-generation optical networks will become a prominent focus of 5G and 6G mobile networks, due to the demand for extreme bandwidth, coverage and device synchronisation.

For now, 1/2” image sensors provide a sweet spot for many global security applications with acceptable sensitivity and the ability to use small, low cost optics.  As I mentioned, for more demanding applications, 2/3” image sensors may be required.

CMOS sensor

In addition to the optical fibre cable, an optical fibre network system requires the following components for it to function:

1/3” CMOS image sensors can offer good low light performance, but 1/3” CMOS sensors utilize a rolling shutter as compared to global shutter available in CCD and larger CMOS image sensors.  Currently rolling shutter is not well received in the industrial and military applications as a blurring effect occurs with movement.  Global shutter CMOS is more complex and will take further development to shrink for smaller pixels.

In theory, bigger pixels on full-HD CCD image sensors are better for global security applications because they are more sensitive for improved low light performance.  The drawback is that bigger optics are required so size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) requirements are challenged.  As many systems are upgrading from standard definition to full-HD cameras or adding HD daylight cameras for full motion video, the question is how to find the optimal balance.

Not all of the 1/2” optics available meet the full MTF so the camera provides a better image quality than the lens.  The resulting image might not have the sharpness required by high-end applications.  The optics are getting better and better though.

For upgrades, this provides the option to use the same optical format, but have more pixels and more sensitivity.  This can be a cost-effective approach although new optics are still required.