Texas Instruments MC-1000WU-20A Digital Camera User Manual


 
The CCD Array
5-2
CCD Circuit Description
5.1 The CCD Array
The TC215 is a full-frame charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensor that
provides very-high-resolution image acquisition for image processing
applications such as robotics vision, medical x-ray analysis, and metrology.
The image format of the sensor measures 12.0 mm horizontally by 12.2 mm
vertically; the image area diagonal is 17.2 mm. The image area contains 1017
active lines with 1000 active pixels per line. Six additional dark reference lines
give a total of 1024 lines in the image area, and twenty-four additional dark
reference pixels per line give a total of 1024 pixels per horizontal line. The
pixels are 12 mm square and form precise rows and columns, horizontally and
vertically, allowing precise image geometry measurements.
The CCD is a solid-state device, which requires no external adjustment or
regular maintenance. Unlike a conventional pickup tube, there are no
electromagnetic alignment routines to be observed because there is no
electron beam involved.
The full-frame image sensor should be used with a shutter or with strobed
illumination to prevent smearing of the image during readout. After image
capture (integration time), the readout is accomplished by transferring the
charge one line at a time into two serial registers, each of which contains 512
data elements and 12 dummy elements. The typical pixel rate is
20 mega-pixels per second using both serial registers. Operating the TC215
at the typical data rate of one field per frame generates video at a continuous
15 frames per second in the TV mode of operation.