Interested in upgrading to a back-illuminated sCMOS?

The Most Sensitive Back-illuminated sCMOS Available

Figure 1: Air (fan) cooled and liquid cooled performance of Sona back-illuminated sCMOS models, versus the nearest competitive back-illuminated sCMOS camera type.

95% QE with market-leading liquid assisted vacuum cooling to -45°C. Advantages within fluorescence microscopy include:

Reduced laser illumination intensity - keep cells alive throughout study (i.e. suppressing phototoxic effects) and also limit dye photobleaching
Reduced fluorophore concentrations - maintaining accurate physiology in living specimens
Lower exposure times - follow faster processes
Better SNR with TIRF and confocal low light modalities - better image clarity with techniques that reject out of focus photons.

Superior Quality & Longevity – UltraVac™

Sona is the ONLY back-illuminated sCMOS camera on the market that benefits from a vacuum sensor enclosure. The performance longevity benefits of Andor’s vacuum sensor enclosure should not be overlooked.

REASON 1: Sensor Protection - UltravacTM, Andor’s proprietary approach to vacuum enclosures, with minimized out-gassing, offers the ultimate level of sensor protection.

REASON 2: No re-backfilling of sensor enclosure required - Cameras that do not use vacuum enclosures instead use a method called back-filling, whereby the sensor enclosure contains a positive pressure of dry gas, separated from the external atmosphere by only O-ring seals.

Higher Quantitative Accuracy

Sona 4.2B and Sona 2.0B each offer Extended Dynamic Range functionality, supported by a 16-bit data range. Harnessing an innovative ‘dual amplifier’ sensor architecture, we can access the maximum pixel well depth AND the lowest noise simultaneously, ensuring that we can quantify extremely weak and relatively bright signal regions in one snap. This functionality is useful for accurately visualizing and quantifying many challenging samples that have both weak and bright regions, such as neurons.

To achieve best in class quantification accuracy, Andor have implemented enhanced on-head intelligence to deliver linearity of > 99.7%.

Largest Field of View Available: Sona 4.2B-11

The Sona 4.2B-11 model offers the largest field of view solution, compared with competitive back-illuminated sensors that also use the same GPixel GS400 BSI sensor type. The Sona 4.2B-11 is native F-mount and can be compared against “Competitor A” below, a camera using the same sensor but cropped down to 1608 x 1608 pixel format.

Having as high a field of view as possible with Back-illuminated sCMOS cameras is crucial for a range of studies, including:

Developmental biology – capture whole embryos, e.g. Zebrafish
High Content Screening – capture larger fields of cells, increase information content
Tissue Cultures – minimize stitching, maximize throughput
Organoids – unravelling cell connectivities
Gene Editing – screening large cell cultures for cells whose genomes have been successfully edited

Enhanced Mounting Flexibility: One camera, multiple ports

Sona 2.0B-11 -The Sona 2.0B-11 is native C-mount and is adaptable to various microscope C-mount port diameters, up to 22mm. The 1400 x 1400 full array size of this model is suited to modern 22mm C-mount ports and maximizes the field of view available through this common mount type.

Sona 4.2B-11- The Sona 4.2B-11 offers ultimate flexibility to all ports. The full array is 32mm, which when coupled with the Nikon Ti2 F-mount and in-built 1.5x tube lens offers an unparalleled on-sample field of view and superb uniformity.

The flagship 4.2 Megapixel Sona 4.2B-11 model utilizes a unique technology approach that enables us to usefully access the entire 2048 x 2048 array, offering an impressive 32 mm sensor diagonal, harnessing the entire field of view available from the microscope. This is perfect for applications that require maximum information content, allowing large fields of cells, whole embryos or tissue samples to be captured with absolute clarity.

Sona 4.2B-11 Field of View Advantage: Sona 4.2B-11 with 2048 x 2048 array has a 62% larger field of viewthan a competing back-illuminated sCMOS camera with a 1608 x 1608 array. Captured using a Nikon Ti2 microscope with 60x objective and integrated 1.5x tube lens, accessing the full 2048 x 2048 array while preserving Nyquist resolving clarity. Note that the Andor Magnifying Coupler Unit (MCU) can also be use used to provide additional magnification across a wide range of microscope ports.

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