Optical, Mechanical, And Thermal Considerations; Mechanical Interface - Dalsa Spyder2 User Manual

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Optical, Mechanical, and
Thermal Considerations

4.1 Mechanical Interface

The camera's electronics are housed in a ruggedized lightw eight aluminum case. See
Figure 9.
Mounting
The camera can be mounted using the M 3 holes (metric-threaded) on its base or top, and
on its front plate at the corners.
Environment
The camera and cables should be shielded from environmental noise sources for best
operation. The camera should also be kept as cool as possible. The specified operating
temperature is 10–50°C measured at the front plate, (the corresponding ambient
temperature range w ith still air is 0°C to 37°C). M ounting holes (refer above) allow you to
attach heat sinking.
Thermal Management
For any CCD camera optimal performance is achieved by transferring heat aw ay from the
sensor. Keeping a sensor " cool" reduces the amount of dark current generated. Dark
current is the leading contributor to FPN , PRN U, dark offset, random noise and other
performance specifications, especially w hen a camera is significantly gained (i.e. +10 db).
Generally, dark current doubles for every 7 °C increase in temperature at the sensor and
increases linearly w ith integration time. Further variations in dark current cannot be
compensated for w ith our flat-field correction algorithms. For this reason, at high gains
(+10 dB), high temperatures (40 °C front plate), and low line rates, it is recommended that
you recalibrate the flat-field coefficients w hen the temperature shifts by ±10 °C.
N ote: Upon initial pow er-up the front plate camera temperature is near ambient. It is
recommended to perform flat-field correction once the camera gets w ithin 10 °C of its
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