Atmel Corporation announced the introduction of a new areascan CMOS camera family for industrial machine-vision applications. This new family, under the name of ATMOS, is a very fast CMOS area scan camera able to work in 8, 10 or 12 bits that offers signal to noise ratio. Specific CommCam software, also developed by Atmel, renders camera configuration easy.

ATMOS 1M30 and 1M60 are the first two members of a complete CMOS matrix camera family. They are composed of a 1.3 million pixels CMOS sensor, featuring high sensitivity even at maximal speed. The region of interest (R.O.I.) allows the end-user to implement infinite resolutions and to increase frame rate: with a fast 48 fps full resolution at 1.3M, 60 fps at 1M and 180 fps in VGA format for the 1M60 model (half-speed for the 1M30). Futhermore, the CMOS camera with its CameraLink interface is suitable for those wanting to upgrade from analog to digital modes. The camera can be uploaded remotely. Other CameraLink interfaces will be added with the next ATMOS models.

The two ATMOS cameras are delivered in a 44 mm square section design with a C-mount adapter, among the smallest in the market. The performance, and versatility and adaptability of the compact mechanical body gives OEM and integrators an optimum solution to space-saving in systems. It also allows an implementation into multiple configurations.

"With all its features, ATMOS 1M series offers an exciting alternative to current available products,” said Christophe Robinet, Camera Marketing Manager of Atmel's Professional Imaging. "They offer excellent price-to-quality. Our plan is to release higher resolution versions shortly."

ATMOS features various timing modes: free-run, triggered mode, ITC with very fine setting of the shutter signal (0 to 655 msec by steps of 10 um). The signal to noise ratio of this camera (63 dB) is equivalent to the one typically achieved with CCD sensors. The benefit of the SNR, with the offset and gain fine tuning, is detection of slight differences of gray levels even in low contrast images. These features are particularly suited for inspection (glass, flat panel display, PCB), robot-guidance, metrology, as well as various applications such as microscopy and surveillance applications.

ATMOS 1M30 and 1M60 provide an easy to use, user friendly CameraLink configuration interface with advanced function features such as contrast expansion, Fixed Pattern Noise correction (FPN), and Look Up Table (LUT). ATMOS features five banks of settings: one for factory settings (read only), three for user settings (write/read) and one additional setting that can be locked by the system manufacturer once the system is calibrated. With CommCam software, the end-user gains easy access to all of the cameras' features such as fine gain and offset tuning and synchronization mode. The Commcam concept with its plug-and-play system has contributed to the success of AviivA linescan cameras. It enables automatic identification of the camera range, faster programming, multilingual programming of settings, easy saving process and uploading of firmware for upgrades and customization.

The ATMOS 1M30 and 1M60 cameras will enter their production phase in April 2005, with pricing of $2050 and $2640 respectively for a quantity of 100 pieces.