Stabilized Xenon Flash: The Sharp Platform
PHOXENE Sharp platform
In 2018 Phoxene launched the Sharp »platform, based on a patented technology for regulating – in real-time- the light emitted by a really compact flash device.
This flexible platform powers three on-the-shelf products:
- – Sx-1 unit: for stroboscopic pulses with a high stability in light emission over the entire life of the flash unit.
- – Sx-2 unit: for plateau pulses of light, with constant output power over each pulse. This type of strobe is the ideal fit for rolling-shutter cameras.
- – Sx-3 unit : compact flash strobe for short and mid-range illumination.
Sx-1: A Xenon strobe for regulated light pulses
Designing a strobe able to produce pulses of light with constant output is very challenging: a flashlamp tends to behave differently at each shot, and loses overall efficiency when ageing occurs, hence reducing the amount of light produced for a given energy.
Sx-1 strobe, based on the Sharp platform, brings a solution and opens the way to many possibilities in terms of image processing and analysis.
A patented light regulation system
Sx-1 flash unit is fitted with a patented retroaction system for light regulation. This enables a real-time adjustment in the amount of energy injected to the flashlamp, leading to a very stable pulse-to-pulse production of light. Furthermore, this system balances flashlamp’s ageing and ensures a high stability in output over its entire lifespan.
Accurate and stable colors
Sx-1 flash unit also ensures superior color rendering thanks to Xenon flash large spectrum. Particular attention has been given to stabilize the color of light on the X, Y and Z axes.
A short and powerful pulse
Sx-1 flash unit for industrial applications produces an intense pulse of light out of 2.5J energy, with a pulse duration of 60µS. It addresses primarily machine vision applications where LEDs cannot compete – i.e. very short exposure times and/or mid- to long-range.
Sx-2 : A plateau-shaped pulse of light
The combined retroaction and discharge control implemented in the « Sharp” platform leads to a regulation of the power in emission of light. This way it is possible to create plateau-shaped pulses of light which are very stable in power from the beginning to the end of each full pulse.
Sx-2 also allows to adjust the duration of each plateau, with a maximum duration of multiple milliseconds, which enables the use of a rolling-shutter camera.
Sx-3 : A very compact and powerful Xenon strobe
With its ability to produce powerful pulses with a high repetition rate (1Hz), and with a long life of its lamp (1 Million shots), Sx-3 excels as a compact, active-cooled, mid-range (<15m) Xenon strobe for image capture.
