2010 R&D 100 Winner
The fundamental problem in high-speed imaging is that the camera becomes less and less sensitive at higher and higher speeds. At high frame rates, there is less time to collect photons in each frame and the light signal in each frame becomes weaker and more prone to quantum and electronic noise. Consequently, photographic “speed” (sensitivity) is usually inversely related to physical “speed” (frame rate).
The world’s fastest and most flexible movie camera, Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (Los Alamos, N.M.) MOXIE: Movies of eXtreme Imaging Experiments is unique in that it can simultaneously provide both the highest photographic speed and the highest physical speed without compromising either. Because pixels in the MOXIE camera are very large, the focal-plane array created has far more collection area than competing technologies and is correspondingly large and thus sensitive. To increase speed, MOXIE uses a highly parallel architecture in a manner similar to the way a supercomputer thousands of processors. With more than 1,000 channels operating in parallel on each module, the camera captures images at unprecedented speed: currently more than 4,000 frames at 20 million frames per second.
In addition to multiple channels, MOXIE relies on high-bandwidth eight-channel analog-to-digital converters; large, inline photodiode-pixels; and high-bandwidth, low-noise transimpedance amplifiers.
MOXIE was developed with the assistance of Bicron-Saint-Gobain Crystals, Hiram, Ohio, Mikro Systems Inc., Charlottesville, Va.., National Security Technologies, Las Vegas, Nevada, and Varian Medical Systems, Palo Alto, Calif.
Technology
High-speed video camera
Developers
Bicron-Saint-Gobain Crystals
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Mikro Systems Inc.
National Security Technologies
Varian Medical Systems
Development Team
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| Jacob Mendez and Scott Watson, Los Alamos National Laboratory |
MOXIE: Movies of eXtreme Imaging Experiments Development Team
Mike Appleby, Mikro Systems Inc.
Howard Bender, National Security Technologies
Araceli Diaz (Bender), National Security Technologies
Mike Duncan, Varian Medical Systems
Timothy R. Fox, Varian Medical Systems
Sam Gonzales, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Jill Klinger, Mikro Systems Inc.
Ron Marciniak, Varian Medical Systems
Jacob Mendez, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Lou Perna, Bicron-Saint-Gobain Crystals
Mike Rutkowski National Security Technologies
Scott A. Watson, Los Alamos National Laboratory
