Overview of TCSPC Card
ISS utilizes the high performance SPC-series of cards by Becker and Hickl for Time-Correlated Single Photon Counting (TCSPC) data acquisition. Inserted in the PCI bus of the computer, the card features a high resolution time bin (813 fs) and on-board constant fraction discriminators for the photon signal and the synchronization signal. The cards operational parameters are fully controlled through the ISS VistaVision software which includes the data analysis using fitting routines and the phasor analysis.
Key Features of TCSPC Card
- 4-channel simultaneous acquisition using a router or using additional modules
- Direct input from PMTs
- Time channel resolution: 813 fs
- Electrical time resolution down to 7 ps FWHM; 4 ps RMS
- Dead time: 100 ns
- Trigger out to synchronize external devices
- Trigger input from external source
- Line, Frame and Pixel CLK synchronization
- Drivers for Windows 11
Applications of TCSPC Card
- Time-resolved measurements (FLIM and PLIM)
- Single-wavelength FLIM, multi-wavelength FLIM
- Confocal images
- Polarization images (steady-state and time-resolved)
- FCS, FCCS, PCH
- Scanning FCS, RICS, N&B
- Single Molecule FRET
- PIE measurements
Product Specifications for TCSPC Card
Number of Channels
1
- Up to 4 channels can be acquired using a router
- Multiple cards can be used in parallel
Time resolution (FWHM/RMS)
- 6.6 ps / 2.5 ps
Input voltage range
- -30 mV to - 1 V
Min input pulse width
- 400 ps
Threshold
- 0 to -500 mV
Zero Cross Adj.
- -100 mV to +100 mV
Input voltage range
- -30 mV to -1 V
Min input pulse width
- 400 ps
Threshold
- 0 to -500 mV
Frequency Divider
- 1-2-4
Frequency Range
- 0-150 MHz
Output voltage range
- ± 12 V
Time-to-Amplitude Converters (TAC) Principle
- Ramp Generator / Biased Amplifier
TAC range
- 50 ns to 5 µs
Biased Amplifier Gain
- 1 to 15
Biased Amplifier Offset
- 0 to 100% of TAC range
Min time per channel
- 813 fs
Dead time
- 100 ns
Useful count rate
- 5 MHz
Saturated counts rate
- 10 MHz
Collection time
- 0.1 µs to 100,000 s
Display Interval time
- 0.1 µs to 100,000 s
Repeat time
- 0.1 µs to 100,000 s
Max counts per Time Channel
- 216 - 1
Synchronization with scanning
- Pixel, Line and Frame CLKs
Macro time resolution, internal CLK
- 50 ns, 12 bit
Macro time resolution, external CLK
- 10 ns to 100 ns, 12 bit
Experiment trigger
- TTL
Image Resolution
| No. of time channels | 64 | 256 | 1024 | 4096 |
| No. of pixels | 4096 x 4096 | 2048 x 2048 | 1024 x 1024 | 512 x 512 |
Architecture
- PCI bus (Windows 11)
Power
- 12 W from +5 V; 0.7 W from +12 V
Dimensions (mm)
- 240 (L) x 130 (W) x 15 (D)
