Hamamatsu Photonics, a leader in light-based technologies, manufactures products widely used in scientific and industrial applications for which performance, sensitivity, and accuracy are essential. Recently, the company utilized Intel® FPGAs to implement two innovative photonic devices: the ORCA-Quest qCMOS scientific camera and the X-ray food inspection camera.
The ORCA-Quest is the first camera to realize photon number resolving, outputting the number of photons at each pixel. This quantitative camera demonstrates excellent noise performance, high quantum efficiency, and high resolution. To implement the ORCA-Quest, Hamamatsu selected Intel FPGAs due to several advantages including digital signal processing (DSP) performance, high-bandwidth capability, and ability to integrate many functions within a single device.
While the ORCA-Quest camera is useful for scientific applications, the Hamamatsu X-ray food inspection camera is beneficial for industrial applications. The latter detects damage to food packaging and the presence of foreign matter. It delivers competitive cost, size, performance, and lifecycle when compared to conventional tools. Hamamatsu selected Intel® Arria® 10 and Intel® Cyclone® 10 FPGAs for this system due to the Intel® FPGA architecture, rich intellectual property (IP) portfolio, and ability to control multiple sensors simultaneously.
To learn more about Intel FPGAs being used in the latest industrial applications, please read the case study titled “Hamamatsu Photonics: Real-Time Image Processing.”
