Photometrics Sets a New Standard in Scientific Imaging with Prime BSI™ CMOS Camera

Tucson, Ariz. — Setting a new standard in scientific imaging, Photometrics; announces the release of its Prime BSI Scientific CMOS camera, a new addition to its Prime family of imaging products. Prime BSI provides a perfect balance between high resolution imaging and light collection by leveraging an optimized pixel size, backside illumination (BSI) technology and the low noise characteristics of its award winning Prime CMOS camera platform. Prime BSI is a versatile camera for live cell techniques, including Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence, Ratiometric Imaging and Light Sheet microscopy.

“Prime BSI continues the trend set by Photometrics to establish CMOS technology for low-light imaging, that started with the Prime 95B last year,” said Rachit Mohindra, scientific product manager at Photometrics. “Prime BSI follows in these footsteps, providing the ideal sensitivity for dim signals balanced with a pixel size that is perfect for imaging at 60 times magnification for microscopy applications.”

Prime BSI is designed for live cell microscopy with its near perfect 95 percent quantum efficiency and 6.5µm x 6.5µm pixel area which meet the requirements for Nyquist spatial sampling at 60 times magnification. This advance allows for the collection of nearly all available light, maximizing the signal-to-noise ratio of experiments while preserving cellular features and improving image resolution.

“Our OEM business unit is focused on putting the best tools in the hands of our partners and the Prime BSI represents a major leap forward with its unique combination of high QE and 6.5µm pixel size,” said Steve Smith, OEM product manager at Photometrics. “Excellent for a wide range of biomedical imaging applications, Prime BSI is the ideal camera to power the next generation of instrumentation.”

With the support and tools instrument designers have come to expect from Photometrics, the Prime BSI adds an important new option to our OEM toolbox. The same unparalleled technical features that make the Prime BSI so compelling for research applications delivers newfound power to instrument designers as well.

Photometrics also incorporated advanced features including PrimeEnhance^™ which reduces the negative effects of photon shot noise and PrimeLocate^™ which actively detects and transfers only those regions containing localization data to the host PC.

Prime BSI captures images using the full microscope field-of-view at over 47 frames per second (fps) with 16-bit images and 94fps with 12-bit images. The camera provides a combination of extreme sensitivity, low noise, high frame rates and high resolution.

Photometrics will sponsor an upcoming webinar that will focus on maximizing imaging sensitivity and the impact of BSI-CMOS and image processing. The event is slated for November 14, 2017 at 10:00 a.m. EST. Additional information is available on the Photometrics website.

About Photometrics

Founded in 1978, Photometrics designs and manufactures high-performance CMOS, EMCCD and CCD cameras for life sciences. The architect of the world’s first scientific-grade EMCCD camera, Photometrics maintains its leadership role with the release of Prime, the first sCMOS camera with built-in computational intelligence for image restoration and Prime 95B, the first Scientific CMOS camera with 95% quantum efficiency. Photometrics also offers comprehensive OEM support, including fully characterized, cost-efficient imaging systems and components. Photometrics is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. Additional information is available at www.photometrics.com.