eXcelon™: Back-Illuminated CCD and EMCCD Detector Technology by Photometrics

Breakthrough Back-Illuminated CCD and EMCCD Detector Technology Sets a New Standard for Sensitivity

New eXcelon sensors provide excellent photon-detection capabilities across a wide spectrum, from 200nm to 1100nm, and are particularly beneficial for applications requiring enhanced sensitivity in the Blue and near-infrared (NIR) region. In addition, eXcelon back-illuminated sensors significantly reduce etaloning, the problematic appearance of fringes due to constructive and destructive interference in the device's back-thinned silicon while imaging in the NIR region (750-1100nm).

Advantages of eXcelon technology over other technologies:

• Higher sensitivity across broader wavelength range (than standard thinned back-illuminated CCDs and standard back-illuminated deep-depletion CCDs)
• Lower etaloning (than standard thinned back-illuminated CCDs and standard back-illuminated deep-depletion CCDs)
• Lower dark current (similar to standard thinned back-illuminated CCDs and standard back-illuminated deep-depletion CCDs)

When eXcelon technology is applied to popular EMCCD devices, the result is a detector with sub-electron read noise, superb sensitivity, low dark current, little if any etaloning, and high frame rates - a combination unmatched in the world of CCD/CMOS sensors.

Available in several pixel-array formats:

• 1340 x 100 and 1340 x 400 CCD cameras for spectroscopy,
• 512 x 512 to 2048 x 2048 CCD cameras for imaging.
• 512 x 512 and 1024 x 1024 ProEM EMCCD cameras.

These new eXcelon-enabled cameras will target a wide variety of applications in both the life sciences and physical sciences. Examples include astronomy, Raman spectroscopy, live-cell imaging, confocal imaging, Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence Microscopy (TIRFM), Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET), Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) imaging, solar cell inspection, as well as super resolution techniques such as STORM and PALM.