Adimec’s Q-2HFW-CXP High Full Well Capacity CMOS Camera Enables Advances in Cancer Assessment

As part of the FP7 funded CAReIOCA consortium, Adimec has been involved in the development of an extreme full well, high-speed camera for non-invasive optical imaging for cancer assessment.

The new 2 Megapixel CoaXPress camera (Q-2HFW-CXP) offers a resolution of 1440×1440 at up to 550 fps based on 12 micron pixels. The design of the pixels in this global shutter CMOS image sensor, CMOSIS CSI2100, is optimized for maximum full well performance. An industry unique full well capacity (FWC) of over 2 million electrons per pixel is between 100 to 200 times higher compared to commonly available high speed CMOS sensor technology today (reference: 10-20 keV full well). This results in extremely good shot noise performance of up to 63 dB SNR, making it possible to accurately detect very weak contrast variations in bright environments.

The camera’s high-speed capability enables high-throughput imaging and fast acquisition for observing highly dynamic situations required in in-vivo medical imaging and life science imaging. The project has recently been featured in two articles:

http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/2946741 https://mikroniek.nl/article

The camera is being utilized in Full Field Optical Coherence Tomography (FF-OCT) systems to advance cancer diagnosis. As it is not destructive compared to histology, which is the current standard, there are new possibilities for more thorough cancer assessment and treatment.

For example, at Leiden University Medical Center, a proof of concept study aims to detect metastases in ovarian tissue removed from patients prior to autotransplantation. This can be used to restore fertility in cancer patients following chemotherapy treatment.

Because chemotherapy and radiation can be harmful to ovaries, some eggs can be retrieved for patients desiring continued fertility. There is a risk that there is metastasis so the ovaries need to be checked before reintroduction into the body (autotransplantation). With FF-OCT, all tissue can be tested since it is not damaged.

Current research compares FF-OCT results to histology and has more work planned for other cancer assessment applications.

This camera can also be used in interferometric optical microscopy, defraction based contrast imaging, 2D shot noise limited bright scene imaging, among others.

For example, Adimec’s high full well camera is used in research by MIT to push the sensitivity limits in interferometric microscopy:

https://www.osapublishing.org/ol/abstract.cfm?uri=ol-41-7-1656

The researchers are imaging small cell membrane structure dynamics at high speed with high sensitivity to study malaria, cell mutation, cancer cells, and more. They are also implementing non-linear methods into 2D imaging as an improvement for medical research over the common approach based on single pixel detectors.

Last Updated: 2025-09-04 21:25:43