SWIR Cameras

Xenics introduces Wildcat+ 640

Nov. 23, 2022
3 min read

Leuven, Belgium, November 23rd, 2022 – Wildcat+ 640 has been announced today as the new state-of-the-art short-wave infrared (SWIR) camera from Xenics. This new product pushes the limits of high performance SWIR imaging for Xenics’ industrial customers.

Xenics is Europe’s leading developer and manufacturer of advanced infrared sensors, cameras and customized imaging solutions for the short-wave infrared (SWIR) and the LWIR realm.

Wildcat+ 640 is the new member of the SWIR camera family dedicated to demanding industrial vision applications. With Wildcat+ 640, Xenics is expanding its SWIR camera offering towards industrial implementations such as: process monitoring, industrial machine vision or medical. These high-performance cameras also fit scientific uses. 

Wildcat+ 640: the new reference for SWIR in machine vision

With Wildcat+ 640, Xenics launches its second stage of the Wildcat flagship. Indeed, this new SWIR camera can run high speed at 300 Hz full VGA format with a very low noise of only 45e-. Combined with a large pixel pitch of 20 μm, this gives Wildcat+ 640 a unique ability to work in low light environments.

The ability to detect low SWIR signals is given by the ratio between the pixel surface and the noise floor (also called the ROIC noise). The pixel pitch of Wildcat+ 640 is 20 μm pitch, its surface area is thus 400 μm2. The noise floor is 45e-, the ratio is thus 8.89. When comparing to products based on 15 μm pitch with the noise of 30e-, their ratio is only 7.5. Wildcat+ 640 is thus nearly 20% more capable to work with low SWIR signals.

Marc Larive, Strategic Marketing Manager explains: “This improved performance allows customers to work with a smaller light budget. This can be translated in shorter integration time, or less light power consumption and thus less thermal effect, and finally a cheaper illumination system”.

High speed (300Hz) and high sensitivity makes Wildcat+ 640 a one-of-a-kind solution for the benefit of highly demanding industrial customers.

Industrial products with scientific grade performances:

With Wildcat+ 640, Xenics offers to machine vision applications the ultimate combination of high sensitivity, high signal-to-noise and high-speed capability for SWIR detection. In order to comply with industrial standards and requirements, Wildcat+ 640 is proposed with CameraLinkTM or a plug-and-play USB3 Vision interface that makes the camera very easy-to-use. Moreover, the GenICam compliance of the camera ensures a straightforward integration in industrial systems.

With Wildcat+ 640, Xenics offers the best performance for machine vision, process monitoring and surveillance applications such as:

  • inspection where customers will benefit from high sensitivity to detect small and low contrast defects

  • hyperspectral imagery where customers will benefit from high speed and high signal-to-noise ratio

  • harsh environment vision where customers will benefit from the high sensitivity and the enhanced capability to detect small signals

With its new Wildcat+ 640 flagship, Xenics redefines the references for SWIR cameras in the industry.

About Xenics 

Xenics is a pioneer of infrared technology with a proven track record of twenty years. Xenics designs and markets infrared imagers, cores and cameras of best-in-class image quality to support machine vision, scientific & advanced research, transportation, process monitoring, safety & security and medical applications.

Xenics offers a complete portfolio of line-scan and area-scan products for the vSWIR, SWIR, and LWIR ranges. Mastering all critical steps of the manufacturing process with advanced production facilities and in-house know-how on detectors, systems and software development Xenics delivers state-of-the-art solutions and optimized custom designs. Xenics ensures its commitment of doing good to the world by developing solutions for enhancing quality of life and sustainability. As a European vendor with a worldwide sales and service network, Xenics supports its customers with simplified export procedures. More at: xenics.com

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