For full swing commercially available 1/2" and 2/3" imaging sensors in standard video cameras call for an illumination density of approximately 0.5 to 1.0 lx at the input. Improved sensitivities can be achieved by use of image intensifier tubes, coupled to the CCD either fiberoptically or by relay lens. Such configurations are wellknown at black and white low light level TV cameras. Three-channel color cameras with three CCDs have to be equipped with three image intensifier tubes intensifying each of the color component images (RGB) absolutely free of geometric distortions. Such 3-channel low light level cameras are complex in design and expensive. The paper presents a low light level CCD color camera with only one chip and only one image intensifier tube with an excellent cost/performance ratio. An absolutely distortion-free proximity focus image intensifier diode PROXIFIER R of high resolution with a color stripe filter beneath its photocathode is fiberoptically coupled to a CCD with such a precision that the position of the filter-stripes coincides with that of the vertical pixel rows of the CCD.

Date Published: 1 July 1990
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 1243, Electron Image Tubes and Image Intensifiers, (1 July 1990); doi: 10.1117/12.19466

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 1243:
Electron Image Tubes and Image Intensifiers
Illes P. Csorba, Editor(s)