New-Tech Europe | Aug 2019 | Digital Edition

Industrial Miniaturization: How Compact Can a GigE Vision Camera Get? Jenson Chang, LUCID Vision Labs

As OEM vendors take on more custom solutions and products, integrating standard industrial machine vision cameras can be a challenge due to space constraints and limited flexibility. For example, when a machine builder needs to add an inspection step in between two wafer production processes, this can become a difficult task. There is limited space in between the production machines thus creating a constraint on the type of camera that can be used. Small space also means short imaging distance and constrained imaging area, creating even more limitation on lens and camera selection. The machine builder is faced with either sourcing expensive custom solutions or engineer their own solution by modifying standard

products which increases cost, development time and risk. Use cases like these are common and there has been an increase in market demand for smaller, flexible form factor, and low power cameras that can be integrated into compact machine vision systems. LUCID has integrated different miniaturized technologies to create the world’s smallest GigE Vision PoE camera called Phoenix providing a flexible camera design without sacrificing imaging performance or price. Miniaturization isn’t just about being smaller, it is also about being able to more effectively fit into smaller applications. The Phoenix has a transformable design allowing it to be mounted in a variety of different ways for a diverse range of compact OEM applications. It's Not Only About Size LUCID’s new Phoenix camera provides

a fully-featured, micro-compact size measuring only 24 x 24 mm, making it the world’s smallest and lightest GigE Vision PoE camera. But miniaturizing industrial components isn’t just about making them smaller. It is also about making them fit better within the surrounding components, allowing builders to minimize the whole space of the application. To achieve this, the Phoenix has a unique transformable design that can be configured to meet a wide range of OEM designs. The default shape of the Phoenix camera resembles that of a traditional cased camera. However, individual camera board stacks can be unscrewed and unfolded to various angles to best fit the application. For example, it can be used as a 90° angle camera shape for corner mounting or even as a 180° angle shape for the ultimate custom fit which offers broader flexibility in system design.

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