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Image intensifiers
Introduction
Image intensifiers have been developed over the past decades. Now they are available in a variety of operational principles and tube generations.
Over the years, PROXITRONIC has concentrated mainly on proximity focused image intensifiers of the first and second generation and has driven those designs towards outstanding performance.
Today PROXITRONIC offers a wide range of photocathodes and phosphor screens, combined with special features and options to individually provide each customer with a well-proven and tailor-made tube performance to suit the given application.
Features
Proximity focused image intensifiers deliver an image free of geometrical distortions and virtually unsensitive to magnetic fields. They can be operated in DC mode as well as in ultrafast shuttered mode (”gating“). Depending on the configuration they are suited for photon counting and video imaging and work in the UV and VIS spectral range. The component is radiation hard and ruggedized. Light absorbing layers inside the tube work as radiation trap to ensure maximum image contrast.
Applications
Main applications presently are:
- UV-imaging (Missile Warning Systems, semiconductor manufacturing, powerline inspection)
- Fast gating (particle velocimetry, combustion analysis)
- Low light (night vision, spectroscopy, bioluminscense)
Configuration parameters
- active diameter: 25 or 40 mm
- input window: quarz or fiberoptic
- photocathode: from 200 to 800 nm (different types for optimal QE and SNR)
- shutter option (DC, 1 ms, 100 ns, 10 ns, 5 ns, 1 ns)
- number of MCPs: none (booster), 1 for imaging, 2 for photon counting
- output window: clear glass or fiberoptic
- phosphor screen: P43, P46 or P47 - for optimized efficiency and decay characteristic
- power supply: integrated or separate
- individual options on request
Options
Besides the standard configuration we do also take into account application-specific requirements. Thus we invite our customers to provide such information. Confidentiality is of course guaranteed.
Warranty
The guarantee period is 12 months after delivery date. We grant full replacement upon failure due to defects in the manufacture or to deficiencies of material during first 20 operating hours.
Improper treatment may irreversibly deteriorate the properties of image intensifiers. We therefore strongly recommend to adhere to the attached ”Directions for Safe Use of Image Intensifiers“.
For our tubes, we guarantee that the performance data given in the attached test sheet have been determined based on scientifically recognized methods.
For properties likely to deteriorate under the influence of light or heat, e.g. dark current, warranty is only granted if an acceptance test by the customer, carried out with suitable test equipment and within 30 days of delivery, reveals figures markedly deviating from those given in the accompanying test sheet.
Warranty is not extended to defects caused by breakage, transport damage, burn marks of bright objects and electrical or mechanical overloading. Please understand that for any image intensifier supplied without an original PROXITRONIC power supply or pulse generator, we can only provide a limited warranty. In that case, any damage resulting from high voltage discharges is not covered by the warranty.
The useful life of image intensifiers is by definition terminated when the gain has fallen to 50% of its initial value. This decrease is essentially proportional to the total number of electrons having reached the screen. A meaningful count of operating hours would therefore call for a count of the coulombs passed through the device, a hardly practical procedure. Experience has shown that the stability of the gain can be assessed in a suitable quick test. All tubes are subjected to this test and they pass it only if a useful life of at least 1000 hours according to the above definition may be expected, provided they are operated within the specified limits.