Chapter 5 Operation; Introduction; Figure 9. Block Diagram Of Pixis-Xb System - Princeton PIXIS-XB System User Manual

Operation

Introduction

Once the PIXIS-XB camera has been installed as explained in
the preceding chapters, operation of the camera is
straightforward. In most applications you simply establish
optimum performance using the Focus mode (in
WinView/32, for example), set the target camera
temperature, wait until the temperature has stabilized, and
then do actual data acquisition in the Acquire mode.
Additional considerations regarding experiment setup and
equipment configuration are addressed in the software
manual.
During data acquisition, the CCD array is exposed to a
source and charge accumulates in the pixels. After the
defined exposure time, the accumulated signal is readout
of the array, digitized, and then transferred to the host
computer. Upon data transfer, the data are displayed
and/or stored via the application software. This sequence
is illustrated by the block diagram shown in Figure 9.
Whether or not the data are displayed and/or stored
depends on the data collection operation that has been
selected in the application software. In WinX and
LightField, the data collection operations use the
Experiment Setup parameters to establish the exposure
time (the period when signal of interest is allowed to accumulate on the CCD). Focus
{Preview} is more likely to be used in setting up the system (see the "First Light"
discussions) and Acquire is then used for the collection and storage of data. Briefly:

In Focus {Preview} mode, the number of frames is ignored. A single frame is
acquired and displayed, another frame is acquired and overwrites the currently
displayed data, and so on until Stop is selected. In WinX, the last frame acquired
before Stop is selected can be stored; in LightField, this frame cannot be stored.
Focus {Preview} mode is particularly convenient for familiarization and setting up.
For ease in focusing, the screen refresh rate should be as rapid as possible, achieved
by operating with axes and cross-sections off, and with Zoom 1:1 selected.

In Acquire mode, every frame of data collected can be automatically stored (the
completed dataset may include multiple frames with one or more accumulations).
This mode would ordinarily be selected during actual data collection. One limitation
of Acquire mode operation is that if data acquisition continues at too fast a rate for it
to be stored, data overflow may eventually occur. In WinX, this could only happen in
Fast Mode operation.
Chapter 5
Figure 9. Block Diagram of
PIXIS-XB System
29