Most instrument teams start with a catalog camera. On paper, the sensor, noise and cooling all look right. Then the design review starts. The window cuts off part of the spectrum you need. The body is a few millimeters too long for the enclosure. The mounting doesn't line up with your frame. The software has to drop into a control stack that already exists.
At that point, you can redesign the instrument around the camera, or change the camera to fit the instrument. Finger Lakes Instrumentation (FLI) builds cooled scientific cameras, and we do both standard and custom work, from a small change to a new design. Here's what can be customized and how to start a project.
When a catalog camera is almost right
A custom camera doesn't have to mean a clean-sheet design. Most custom requests fall somewhere along a range:
- Configuration choices made at build time, such as the sensor, window, front flange or cooling method.
- Modifications to a standard model, such as a different housing, mounting or connector pinout.
- Engineering projects that combine several of these changes for a specific instrument.
- New designs built around your sensor requirements, form factor and integration needs.
The further along that range you go, the earlier you'll want to talk to us. "Almost right" is often fixable without starting over.
Sensor, flange and cooling
Some of the most useful customizations are simple if you make them early.
Sensor. The sensor sets the format, pixel size and sensitivity your instrument works with. When no standard configuration matches your optics, we start there, because the rest of the camera is built around it.
Windows. The chamber window sets which wavelengths reach the sensor. Of our two standard optical windows, F116 transmits farther into the near-infrared and F101 transmits farther into the near-UV. UV fused silica windows are available on selected models. Because the window goes in during the clean-room build, it has to be chosen before the camera is assembled.
Front flanges and back focus. Back focus and filter-wheel compatibility depend on the camera's front flange. We change it by swapping the flange, not by stacking adapters, which keeps the optical path short and rigid. If your optics need a specific back focus, we can match the flange to it. Our post on back focus, flanges and filter wheels covers the math, and our accessories page shows the standard options.
Cooling. Air cooling suits many instruments. Others need liquid circulation, or want to use the instrument housing itself as the heatsink. Revelation cameras support all three. We compare the trade-offs in air vs. liquid cooling for OEM cameras.
Mechanical fit: drawings, STEP models and thin bodies
Mechanical fit is where many camera choices succeed or fail. Two things help:
- STEP models are available, so your mechanical team can place the camera in the instrument model before anything is ordered.
- Revelation shares Aurora's electronics and sensors in a thinner body. When it's mounted to your housing as a heatsink, it's less than 55 mm front to back, and its liquid fittings sit on the side or back.
If the standard housing still doesn't fit, a modified housing or mounting is a reasonable request. Send us the envelope your camera has to fit in and the mounting points on your side, and we'll tell you what we can change.
Connectors, software and integration
On the electrical side, connector pinout can be matched to your instrument's existing wiring.
In most OEM instruments, users never see the camera's software, only your application. We offer a free software development kit (SDK) for every current FLI camera, with documentation and example code, plus engineering support for integration. The Kepler SDK runs on Windows and Linux. Many customers wrap our SDKs in their own code, for example in Python.
When an instrument needs the camera to work inside a specific software framework, that integration can be scoped as a custom project. External trigger in and out is standard, which makes synchronizing with light sources, shutters and stages simpler. One PC can run multiple cameras, which helps in multi-camera instruments. SDKs and manuals are on our support page.
Bigger projects: new designs
Some instruments need more than a single modification. A project might pair a different sensor from our range with a custom housing, a specific cooling method, a matched flange and a pinout for your harness, all in one camera. These are scoped as engineering projects, with non-recurring engineering (NRE) defined up front.
A full new design follows the same path: our engineers review your requirements, build and test prototypes, then move into production. Each camera is built to a documented build sheet and tested before it ships.
Replacing a detector that is going away
Many instruments were built around CCD sensors that are no longer made. Rather than redesign the instrument, many teams look for a close drop-in match. For a replacement, tell us how the current camera is used, including your exposure times and, for time-delay integration (TDI) and other scanning work, the row-transfer rate you need. We'll propose an alternative and tell you what, if anything, would need to change. Our post on replacing CCDs in gel and blot imagers walks through one version of this problem.
Why in-house manufacturing matters for custom work
Custom work goes smoothly when the people who design a change also build it. At FLI, we machine and finish our camera housings and chamber parts, finish and test our boards, and assemble sensor chambers in our 1,000+ sq ft ISO Class 7 clean room. Then we test every camera before it ships. A custom housing is made in the same shop and assembled in the same clean room as our standard cameras, and each custom camera is built to a documented build sheet and tested before it ships. You can see the process on our in-house manufacturing page.
A production test summary is available for each camera by serial number, which gives your incoming inspection something to compare against. Our post on acceptance testing for gain, noise and linearity explains how to check a camera yourself. Since inception, fewer than 1% of FLI cameras have failed in their first five years.
How a custom project starts
The fastest way to scope a custom camera is to send us a short requirements summary:
- What the instrument measures, and the wavelength range.
- The sensor format and pixel size you need, or the optics the camera has to match, including back focus.
- The mechanical envelope, mounting and any STEP model of the enclosure.
- How heat will leave the camera: air, liquid or the housing.
- Connector pinout needs, the host interface, operating system and software framework.
- Triggering and timing needs.
- Expected volumes, from prototypes to production.
With that, we can tell you whether a standard model, a modification or a new design fits best. If you're still choosing a camera partner, our guide to choosing an OEM camera partner lists the questions worth asking.
Talk to our sales team
Whether you need a different window or a camera designed around your instrument, our sales team can help. Request a quote or email sales@flicamera.com with your requirements. FLI cooled scientific cameras are Made in USA.
