Category: Industry Trends

CoaXPress?

What are the benefits of using CoaXPress-over-Fiber for my application?

• Available as CXP to nGMII (device) or nGMII to CXP (host) Bridge IP Cores

• Ultra-high data/frame rates

• Many accessory and cabling options to cover any length requirement

• Low CPU overhead, low latency, low jitter image acquisition

• Highest camera count per PC performance

• Very competitive cost/performance ratio

• Wide industry acceptance due to JIIA standardization

• Ready for CXP25

What are the jitter and latency of CoaXPress-over-Fiber? How do they compare to “traditional”

CoaXPress?

CoaXPress-over-Fiber is based on the CoaXPress protocol and it exhibits the same high performance as CoaXPress in terms of jitter and latency. 

In addition, as CoaXPress-over-Fiber supports higher transmission speed compared to CoaXPress, the jitter and latency will be further improved in these versions.

What is the maximum cable length with multi-mode fibers?

With a standard 40GBASE-SR4 QSFP+ Optical Transceiver Module and an MTP/MPO multi-mode fiber cable, the maximum cable length is 150 meters. 

This solution is suitable for machine vision applications.

What is the maximum cable length with single-mode fibers?

With a standard 40GBASE-ER4 QSFP+ LC DOM Optical Transceiver Module and an LC-Duplex single-mode fiber cable, the maximum cable length is 40 kilometers. 

This solution is suitable, for example, for video transmission applications.

What are the pros and cons of using fiber optics?

Pros

• First and foremost, cable length is not an issue anymore as fiber connectivity is basically not limited in length.

• Fiber optics provide more bandwidth, as connectivity at 10 and 25 Gbps per fiber is standard today and widely used in data centers.

• Fiber optics are immune to electrical noise, which will be a significant advantage on the production floor and in some medical applications.

• Fiber optics are lighter and smaller in size than the equivalent copper cabling, 

making it appropriate for applications where this characteristic is essential, like in aircrafts or vehicles.

Cons

There is no “power over fiber”. As signals in fiber optics are transmitted using light, 

there is no way to transfer power over fiber optics and devices such as cameras must be powered separately.

What are the cable options for CoaXPress-over-Fiber?

One of the most important benefits of CoaXPress-over-Fiber is the wide variety of connectivity options already available from multiple companies. 

The initial connectivity options for CoaXPress-over-Fiber and the Coaxlink QSFP+ at 10 Gbps are SFP+ and QSFP+ (Quad, or four times SFP+) modules.

The advantage of using modules compared to fixed interfaces is that ports can be equipped with any suitable type of transceiver as required by the application.

A variety of transmitter and receiver types is available, allowing users to select the appropriate transceiver to provide the required optical reach over multi-mode or single-mode fiber.

At a Glance

• One QSFP+ port compliant with 40 Gbps optical modules

• 5.000 MB/s camera bandwidth

• PCIe 3.0 (Gen 3) x8 bus: 6.700 MB/s bus bandwidth

• Feature-rich set of 20 digital I/O lines

• Extensive camera control functions

• Memento Event Logging Tool

• Compatible with CustomLogic: Your own FPGA logic

Benefits

What is CoaXPress-over-Fiber?

CoaXPress-over-Fiber is a light but significant extension of the existing CoaXPress specification to support transport over fiber optics.

CoaXPress (CXP) is the de-facto standard for high-bandwidth computer vision applications. CoaXPress 2.1. 

the latest version of the specification, specifies the CXP-12 speed, a 12.5 Gbps (Gigabit per second) connection over a coaxial copper cable. 

As link aggregation is common with CoaXPress, bandwidths of 50 Gbps (12.5 x 4) are easily achievable with four CXP-12 connections. 

CoaXPress-over-Fiber has been designed as an add-on to the CoaXPress specification. 

It provides a way to run the CoaXPress protocol, as it is, unmodified, over a standard Ethernet connection, including fiber optics. 

As such, CoaXPress-over-Fiber uses standard electronics, connectors and cables designed for Ethernet, but the protocol is CoaXPress, not Ethernet, not GigE Vision.

Read more about CoaXPress-over-Fiber on our technology page.

Flexible line-scan camera operation with the rate converter

• The rate converter is a smart, programmable frequency multiplier/divider.

• Used with motion encoders and line-scan cameras, it allows the user to choose the aspect ratio of the pixels in the image.

• It provides a way to calibrate the acquisition chain to easily reach square (1:1 aspect ratio) pixels.

Windows and Linux drivers available

Applications

Machine Vision for the Electronic Manufacturing Industry

• High speed image acquisition for AOI, 3D SPI, 3D lead/ball inspection machines.

• Very high resolution line-scan image acquisition for Flat Panel Display inspection and solar cell inspection

Machine Vision for the General Manufacturing Industries

• High frame rate image acquisition for inspection machines

• Line-scan image acquisition for surface inspection machines

• Line-scan image acquisition for textile inspection

Machine Vision for the Printing Industry

• High speed line-scan image acquisition for printing inspection machines

Video Acquisition and Recording

• High-frame-rate video acquisition for motion analysis and recording

Line-scan triggering capabilities 1/2

Grablink supports continuous web scanning (to inspect infinite, continuously moving surfaces without losing a single line)

and discrete object scanning (to acquire the image of objects moving in front of the camera).

• A trigger is used to start the acquisition when the part is in position. Hardware triggers come from the board’s I/O lines.

Software triggers come from the application.

• After it is started, the acquisition either:

– Continues indefinitely (for web inspection applications)

– Continues for a programmable number of lines (to acquire the image of objects of a known length)

– Continues until an end trigger is received (to acquire the image of objects of a variable length)

• An optional trigger delay is available to postpone the beginning of the acquisition for a programmable number of lines.

Line-scan triggering capabilities 2/2

• The Grablink frame grabber controls the camera scanning rate based on the signals received from a motion encoder. When the

parts move faster, the acquisition line rate of the camera increases. When the parts move slower, the acquisition line rate of the camera decreases.

• The Grablink boards interpret A/B signals from quadrature motion encoders to know in which direction (forward or backward) the part is moving.

• Optionally, the Grablink can be instructed to acquire lines only when the object is moving forward or only when the object is moving backward.

• A feature called Backward Motion Cancellation stops the acquisition when a backward motion is detected. The line acquisition

automatically resumes when the motion is again in the forward direction, at the exact place where the acquisition was interrupted.

• A Rate Converter allows the camera to acquire lines at any programmable resolution lower or higher than the resolution of the

motion encoder. This gives the designer incredible freedom and flexibility during the development of the application.

General purpose I/O lines

• Compatible with a wide range of sensors and motion encoders.

• High-speed differential inputs: Quadrature motion encoder support up to 5 MHz.

• Isolated current-sense inputs: 5V, 12V, 24V signaling voltages accepted, up to 50 kHz, individual galvanic isolation up to

500VAC RMS.

• Isolated contact outputs.

High-performance DMA (Direct Memory Access)

• Direct transfer into user-allocated memory and hardware boards that expose PCI addresses

• Hardware scatter-gather support

• 64-bit addressing capability

Area-scan triggering capabilities

• A trigger is used to start the acquisition when the part is in position. Hardware triggers come from the Grablink’s I/O lines.

Software triggers come from the application.

• An optional trigger delay is available to postpone the acquisition for a programmable time.

• A trigger decimation function allows to skip some of the triggers.

• Camera exposure control allows the application to control the exposure time of the camera.

• When the acquisition starts, at the appropriate timing, the Grablink board generates a signal to control an illumination device

connected to one of its output lines.

At a Glance

• For two Camera Link Base or Lite configuration cameras

• Directly compatible with hundreds of Camera Link cameras available on the market

• Supports PoCL, Power over Camera Link

• ECCO: Extended Camera Link cable length

• PCIe x4 bus: 850 MB/s sustained delivery bandwidth

• Feature-rich set of 20 digital IO lines

• Memento Event Logging Tool

Benefits

New in MultiCam 6.19

• Support of the Windows Core Isolation security feature

• Windows 11 support

• Support of recent Linux distributions & kernels

• New Python bindings for MultiCam

ECCO: Extended Camera Link Cable Operation

• Use longer, up to 15 meters long, Camera Link cables!

Directly compatible with hundreds of Camera Link cameras available on the market

Check out our supported cameras page (in the Support menu)