UK SBS Single Board Camera Development

STFC have a long running project in the design and production of sensors for Imaging Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (ToF-MS). In ToF-MS, a sample is ionised and its constituent parts accelerated to hit a detector. The time of flight of each corresponds to its mass. In the PImMS (Pixel Imagin Mass Spectrometry) detector, an image at each time segment is also possible. This allows even more information to be derived, such as the structure of the original molecule.

STFC designed the PImMS sensor, and bought a camera for it from Aspect Systems along with our partners at Oxford University. The IP in this camera (including the schematics, design and FPGA firmware) belongs to Aspect Systems. Recently, it has been decided to request an updated camera from Aspect which would allow faster readout from the sensor.

This procurement will cover the design and manufacture of a high speed, single board camera based on existing Aspect Systems IP developed for the PImMS project.