Product Description
What is qCMOS (quantitative CMOS) camera ?
The qCMOS camera is an ultra-sensitive camera that combines extremely low noise performance with fast readout. The qCMOS camera is the first in the world to enable photon number resolving imaging, which accurately measures the number of photons, because the noise generated when converting light into a signal is lower than that generated by photons, the smallest unit of light.
The ultimate quantitative imaging with the qCMOS camera is expected to find applications in various fields, including quantum technology, astronomy, semiconductors, and life sciences.
1. Extreme low-noise performance
In order to detect weak light with high signal-to-noise, ORCA®-Quest 2 has been designed and optimized to every aspect of the sensor from its structure to its electronics. Not only the camera development but also the custom sensor development has been done with latest CMOS technology, an extremely low noise performance of 0.30 electrons has been achieved.
2. Realization of photon number resolving (PNR) output
Light is a collection of many photons. Photons are converted into electrons on the sensor, and these electrons are called photoelectrons. “Photon number resolving*” is a method of accurately measuring light by counting photoelectrons. In order to count these photoelectrons, camera noise must be sufficiently smaller than the amount of photoelectron signal. Conventional sCMOS cameras achieve a small readout noise, but still larger than photoelectron signal, making it difficult to count photoelectrons. Using advanced camera technology, the ORCA-Quest 2 counts photoelectrons and delivers an ultra-low readout noise of 0.27 electrons rms (@Ultra quiet scan), stability over temperature and time, individual calibration and real-time correction of each pixel value.
* Photon number resolving is unique and quite different from photon counting (More precisely the method resolves the number of photoelectrons. However, since single photon counting instead of single photoelectron counting has been used for a comparable method in this field, we will use the term “photon number resolving”).
3. Back-illuminated structure and high resolution
High QE is essential for high efficiency of detecting photons and achieved by back-illuminated structure. In conventional back-illuminated sensors, crosstalks occur between pixels due to no pixel separation, and resolutions are usually inferior to those of front-illuminated sensors. The ORCA-Quest 2 qCMOS's sensor has back-illuminated structure for achieving high quantum efficiency, and trench structure in one-by-one pixel for reducing crosstalk.
4. Realization of a large number of pixels and high speed readout
ORCA-Quest 2 realizes ultra-low noise with 9.4 megapixels (4096 (H) × 2304 (V)). ORCA-Quest is capable of capturing a larger number of objects, compared to conventional scientific cameras like Gen Ⅱ sCMOS and EM-CCD camera.
In addition, ORCA-Quest 2 has outstanding performance in terms of its readout speed. Here, we refer to “data rate (number of pixels × frame rate)”, which represents how many pixels a camera read out in 1 second, for comparison among scientific cameras. ORCA-Quest 2 with Standard scan realizes higher data rate even with lower readout noise than conventional sCMOS cameras. Also, ORCA-Quest 2 with Ultraquiet scan realizes photon number resolving imaging with 10 times faster data rate than single photon counting imaging by EM-CCD cameras.
Technical Specifications
Effective no. of pixels
4096 (H) × 2304 (V)
Readout speed
120 frames/s
Readout noise
0.43 electrons
Dynamic range
23 000 : 1
