ATR2110C

ATR2110C Research-Grade Deep-Space Cooling Camera

1 Description and Features

The ATR2110C(ATR3CMOS02300KPA) camera is designed specifically for astrophotography. Large image area, big pixel size and high sensitivity make it suitable for night sky live broadcasting and meteor monitoring. It can be also used for deep sky photo shooting, since the camera has cooled CMOS sensor, ultra-low readout noise and zero amp-glow. Its extraordinary performance and extensive usage will give you great astrophotography experience.

The features of ATR2110C are listed below:

  • SC2110 Color CMOS Sensor
  • Resolution: 1920 x 1200
  • 12μm Square Pixel
  • 69-inch Optical Format
  • 12-bit ADC
  • 512 Mbyte Memory
  • Precise Temperature Regulation
  • G Sensitivity: 120000 mV/Lux s @HCG,10900 mV/Lux · s @LCG
  • Zero Amp-Glow
  • Ultra-Low Noise: 4 to 0.61e-@HCG
  • Support High Frame Rate Mode (120 FPS at all Pixel Readout 8 bit @LCG)
  • SNR Max: 50 dB
  • Dynamic Range: 72 dB (Linear Mode)
  • -35°C below ambient under short exposure/ -42°C under long exposure time (> 1s)
ATR2110C Figure 1 SC2110 Sensor and Its Pixel Structure

2 ATR2110C Specifications and Performance

2.1 Camera Specifications

Sensor

SmartSens SC2110 back illuminated sensor

Diagonal

27.4 mm

Image Resolution

2.3 mega pixels (1920*1200)

Pixel Size

12mm ´ 12mm

Image Area

23.2mm ´14.6mm

Max FPS at Resolution (USB 3.0)

12bit

8bit

85(LCG)/40(HCG)FPS@ 1920*1200

240(LCG)/80(HCG)FPS @ 960*600

120(LCG)/40(HCG)FPS @ 1920*1200

240(LCG)/80(HCG) FPS @ 960*600

Max FPS at Resolution (USB 2.0)

12bit

8bit

8(LCG)/4(HCG) FPS @ 1920*1200

12(LCG)/4(HCG) FPS @ 960*600

12(LCG)/4(HCG) FPS @1920*1200

24(LCG)/8(HCG) FPS @ 960*600

Shutter Type

Rolling shutter

Exposure Time

0.1ms – 3600s

Gain

1x – 100x

SNR

50 dB

Dynamic Range

72 dB (Linear Mode)

Read Noise

5.01-0.4e-

QE Peak

>89%

Full Well

17ke-

ADC

12bit

DDR3 Buffer

512MB (4Gb)

Connection Port

USB3.0/USB2.0

Camera Adaptor

M42 ´ 0.75mm

Protect Windows

IR-cut filter/AR-window

Spectral Range

380-690nm (with IR-cut filter)

Capture/Control SDK

Windows/Linux/macOS/Android Multiple Platform SDK (Native C/C++, C#/VB.NET, Python, Java, DirectShow, Twain, etc.);

Recording System

Still picture and movie

Camera Dimensions

Diameter 80mm * height 107.1mm

Camera Weight

0.577kg

Back Focus Distance

17.5mm

Cooling:

Two stage TEC

Effective Cooling Temp:

-35°C below ambient under short exposure/ -42°C under long exposure (> 1s)

Supported OS

Microsoft® Windows® XP / Vista / 7 / 8 / 10 / 11 (32 & 64 bit)

OS x (Mac OS X)

Linux

Table 1 ATR2110C Technique Specifications.

2.2 SmartSens SC2110 QE Curve

The sensor G Sensitivity of ATR2110C is 120000 mV/Lux·s @HCG,10900 mV/Lux·s @LCG . Its QE Curve is shown in Figure 2.

ATR2110C Figure 2 SC2110 QE Curve

2.3 12bit ADC and ROI

ATR2110C has built in 12bit ADC. It also has 12bit output mode for hardware binning and smaller resolution. The camera also supports hardware ROI, and the smaller the ROI size is, the higher the frame rate is.

Table 2 shows the frame rate of ATR2110C in 12/8bit mode, USB3.0 / USB2.0 data transfer interface at different resolutions:

Bit & Interface

FPS

Resolution

12bit ADC

8bit ADC

USB3.0

USB2.0

USB 3.0

USB 2.0

1920*1200

85(LCG)

40(HCG/HDR)

8(LCG)

4(HCG/HDR)

120(LCG)

40(HCG/HDR)

12(LCG)

4(HCG/HDR)

960*600

240(LCG)

80(HCG/HDR)

23(LCG)

8(HCG/HDR)

240(LCG)

80(HCG/HDR)

24(LCG)

8(HCG/HDR)

Table 2 ATR2110C Frame Rate at Different Resolution/Data Bit/Data Transfer (USB3.0/ USB2.0)

2.4 DDR3 Buffer

The ATR2110C camera has a 512MB (4Gb) DDR3 buffer, which helps maintain the stability of data transmission, and effectively reduce the amp-glow caused because image data can be temporarily buffered without being sent hastily to the receiver.

2.5 Binning

ATR2110C supports digital binning from 1´1 to 8´8 in either stacking or averaging method, and hardware binning from 1´1 to 2´2 in averaging method. Hardware pixel binning is much faster than software binning.

2.6 Conversion Gain Switch

ATR2110C supports HCG , LCG and HDR mode switch.

2.7 Power and Cooling System for Precise Temperature Regulation

Please remember, the Camera can be powered only by DC12V 3A power source.

The cooling system of ATR2110C is two-stage Thermoelectric Cooling (TEC) with controllable electric fan assisting heat dissipation.

The TEC system is controlled by PID algorithm, which allows the TEC to be precisely regulated towards the target temperature with 0.1°C deviation.

The working temperature can be regulated to specific number, and effective temperature drop can be -42°C from ambient temperature. Such efficient cooling system guarantees the stability of camera image and its quality.

2.8 Zero Amp-Glow

ATR2110C has been carefully designed and is able to achieve zero amp-glow photo shooting. Figure 3 and Figure 4 show the different cameras at 20°C and 5-minute exposure time with and without amp-glow. By comparison, the image captured by ATR2110C shows zero amp-glow.

ATR2110C Figure 3 Amp-glow
ATR2110C Figure 4 Zero amp-glow

2.9 Camera Performance Analysis

Camera performance can be evaluated with e-/ADU, Read Noise, Full Well and Dynamic Range.

e-/ADU: The sensors found in cameras used for vision applications have pixels that convert incoming photons into electrons. Gain on a CCD /CMOS camera represents the conversion factor from electrons (e-) into digital counts, or Analog-Digital Units (ADUs). Gain is expressed as the number of electrons that get converted into a digital number, or electrons per ADU (e-/ADU).

Read Noise: Read Noise is created within the camera electronics during the readout process as the electrons are subjected to the analog to digital conversion, amplification and processing steps that enable an image to be produced. Read Noise is the most important reference to measure the performance of a camera. Lower read noise usually means better SNR and better quality of image.

Full Well: The electrons are held in each pixel and are converted into electrical charge which can be measured to show the amount of light that has fallen on each pixel. The maximum electrical charge possible is termed "full well capacity". Under the same conditions such as noise and A/D converter quality, the greater full well capacity a sensor has, the wider dynamic range the sensor has. As there is a limit to the depth to which pixels can be made, the full well capacity is often proportional to the frontal area of the light gathering element of the pixel.

Dynamic Range: Dynamic range is the ratio between the maximum output signal level and the noise floor at minimum signal amplification (noise floor which is the RMS (root mean square) noise level in a black image). The noise floor of the camera contains sensor readout noise, camera processing noise and the dark current shot noise. Dynamic range represents the camera’s ability to display/reproduce the brightest and darkest portions of the image and how many variations in between. This is technically intra-scene dynamic range. Within one image there may be a portion that is in complete black and a portion that is completely saturated.

For the ATR series camera, the Gain Value is in xxx% mode. Here xxx is used as the x axis (Gain Value) for the description of the camera performance

All following data were acquired in SharpCap with ASCOM driver:

Camera setting used for HCG performance analysis is shown below:

  • Full resolution
  • RAW 12-bit mode
  • Temperature: -10°C
Figure 5 shows the curves of the camera analysis data in Table 3
ATR2110C Figure 5 e/ADU, Read Noise, Full Well and Dynamic Range for ATR2110C
The camera analysis data is shown in Table 3:

Sensor Analysis Data

Gain Value

100

600

1100

1600

2100

2600

3100

Rel Gain (dB)

0.00

1.52

2.86

3.94

4.99

5.87

7.5

e-/ADU

0.47

0.4

0.34

0.3

0.27

0.24

0.18

Read Noise (e-)

0.61

0.56

0.51

0.48

0.47

0.45

0.4

Full Well (ke-)

1.9

1.6

1.4

1.2

1.1

1

0.8

Dynamic Range (stop)

11.63

11.5

11.42

11.32

11.19

11.09

10.98

Table 3 Camera Analysis Data

Camera setting used for LCG performance analysis is shown below:

  • Full resolution
  • RAW 12-bit mode
  • Temperature: -10°C

Figure 6 shows the curves of the camera analysis data in Table 4

ATR2110C Figure 6 e/ADU, Read Noise, Full Well and Dynamic Range for ATR2110C
The camera analysis data is shown in Table 4 :
Table 4 Camera Analysis Data

Sensor Analysis Data

Gain Value

100

600

1100

1600

2100

2600

3100

Rel Gain (dB)

0.00

1.4

2.73

3.8

4.83

5.71

7.29

e-/ADU

8.43

7.18

6.16

5.44

4.83

4.37

3.65

Read Noise (e-)

5.01

4.87

4.81

4.54

4.28

4.11

3.67

Full Well (ke-)

17.2

14.7

12.6

11.2

9.9

9

7.5

Dynamic Range (stop)

11

11

11

11

11

11

10.99

Camera setting used for HDR performance analysis is shown below:

  • Full resolution
  • RAW 12-bit mode
  • Temperature: -10°C

Figure 7 shows the curves of the camera analysis data in Table 5

ATR2110C Figure 7 e/ADU, Read Noise, Full Well and Dynamic Range for ATR2110C
The camera analysis data is shown in Table 5
Table 5 Camera Analysis Data

Sensor Analysis Data

Gain Value

100

600

1100

1600

2100

2600

3100

Rel Gain (dB)

0.00

1.4

2.73

3.8

4.83

5.71

7.29

e-/ADU

0.5

0.5

0.5

0.5

0.5

0.5

0.5

Read Noise (e-)

1.38

1.47

1.61

1.75

1.89

2

1.08

Full Well (ke-)

4.1

4.1

4.1

4.1

4.1

4.1

4.1

Dynamic Range (stop)

11.54

11.45

11.33

11.2

11.09

11.01

11.88

3 Product Package and Connections

3.1 Packing List

ATR2110C Figure 8 Packing Information of ATR2110C
Table 6 ATR2110C Packing List

Standard Package

A

Carton L:50cm W:30cm H:30cm (20pcs, 12~17Kg/ carton, 0.045m3), not shown in the photo

B

3-A safety equipment case: L:28cm W:23cm H:15cm (1pcs, 3.9Kg/ box); carton size: L:28.2cm W:16.7cm H:25.5cm (TBD), not shown in the photo

C

ATR series camera (M42x0.75 Mount+2” adapter)

D

Power adapter: input: AC 100~240V 50Hz/60Hz, output: DC 12V 3.3A

E

Power cable

F

High-Speed USB3.0 A male to B male gold-plated connectors cable /1.5m

G

M48-M42 extender 0mm

H

M42M-M42F extender 21mm (TBD)

I

M48F - M42M extender 16.5mm (TBD)

J

M42M adapter 12.5mm

K

Cover

3.2 Camera Dimension and Its Mount

ATR2110C Figure 9 Dimension and Mount of ATR2110C
Table 7 Dimension and Mount of ATR2110C

Item

Specification

Diameter

Æ80mm

Height

107.1mm

Mount

M42Fx0.75mm

3.3 Camera Outline and Interface

ATR2110C Figure 10 Camera Outline and Interface.
Table 8 Camera Outline and Interface List

Item

Specification

1

Protective window, AR window for mono camera, IR-cut filter for color camera

2

M42F ´ 0.75 thread

3

Thermal outlet or radiator

4

LED indicators: 1) Power LED. 2) System LED. 3)TEC LED. 4)Fan LED

5

DC 12V 3A power port, 5.5 ´ 2.1mm

6

Air inlet

7

USB 3.0/ USB 2.0 port

8

USB 2.0 HUB

3.4 Camera Mechanical Connection with Adapter

ATR2110C can be connected to a telescope with proper adapter, or the camera lens. The most common adapters are already included in the package, but we also provide some specific adaptors based on the requirement.

The female flange to the sensor is 17.5mm. ATR2110C comes with M42x0.75 mount and can connect to telescope with the M42x0.75 thread in a direct way.

ATR2110C can also connect to the telescope who use 1.25” or 2” eyepieces by M42M-1.25” or M42M-2” adapter. Figure 10 shows the connection of the camera and the adapter. After the adapter is screwed to the camera, the camera can insert into the telescope’s eyepiece tube. Table 8 list the details of the camera and adapter parameters.

ATR2110C Figure 11 The Connection of the ATR Camera and Adapter
Table 9 Camera and Its Adapter Connections

Item

Specification

Back Focal Distance

17.50mm

M42M-1.25” Adapter

M48M-1.25” adapter for 1.25” telescope

M42M-2” Adapter

M42M-2” adapter for 2” telescope

3.5 Camera Mechanical Connection with Lens

Figure 11 shows the connections of the ATR camera and the lens. Table 10 list the connection’s parameters.

ATR2110C Figure 12 Nikon F/Canon EF Lens with ATR Camera
Table 10 Camera and Lens Connection

Item

Specification

1

Nikon F-M42 adapter (TBD)

2

EOS EF-M42 adapter

3

Nikon F-mount lens

4

Canon EF-mount lens

5

ATR camera with M42Fx0.75 mount

3.6 Camera Electric Connection with Accessories

On the back side of ATR2110C, there are 3 connection ports: DC 12V/3A power port, USB3.0/ USB2.0 port and USB-HUB.

Due to the significantly larger power cunsumption of SC2110, ATR2110C (including the cooling system) is now booted up only by 12V/3A power supply. USB3.0 no longer works as a power source but only as a data communication method. The USB-HUB provides connection with other devices, which allows user to avoid the mess of cable management. Once another device is connected through the USB-HUB, it will be connected to PC device through the USB3.0/USB2.0 port.

ATR2110C Figure 13 Camera Electric Connection
Table 11 Camera Electric Connection Details

Item

Specification

USB3.0/USb2.0 Port

To computer with USB3.0/USB2.0 cable

USB HUB for Accessories

To filter wheel with USB2.0 cable

To guiding camera with USB 2.0 cable

Power Port

DC12V/3A

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