The new sensor combines 96 spectral bands, high sensitivity, compact imaging, and fast operation for industrial inspection, Earth observation, agriculture, and medical applications with greater efficiency.
Imec has made its latest LS96 linescan hyperspectral sensor commercially ready for camera builders, system integrators, and satellite developers. The sensor has moved from research and development towards broader adoption, targeting applications that require detailed spectral information with consistent imaging performance.
The sensor captures 96 spectral bands across 450–900 nm and integrates specialised thin-film spectral filters directly onto a CMOS detector. This on-chip architecture removes the need for external filter alignment, enabling a compact imaging design while improving robustness against shocks, vibration, and temperature variations.
A key improvement is its 10 detector lines per spectral band, providing 10 digital time-delay integration stages. This doubles the detector lines compared with the previous LS150 sensor and delivers a 40% improvement in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The sensor also includes black zones between filter stacks to improve noise and dark-current correction during image acquisition.
Built around the flight-proven AMS CMV2000 image sensor, the device provides 2048-pixel resolution, a 2/3-inch optical format, and frame rates of up to 340 frames per second at full resolution. Multiple regions of interest can also be selected to reduce data loads or increase frame rates when complete spectral information is unnecessary.
The integrated architecture is designed to support demanding environments, including satellite missions and drone-based monitoring. Potential applications include automated waste sorting, food inspection, quality control, precision agriculture, soil mapping, disease detection, photovoltaic inspection, oceanography, and industrial vision.
Imec has also focused on manufacturing consistency, reducing sensor-to-sensor wavelength variability to 1%. The company says the sensor is now available for evaluation and integration into next-generation spectral imaging systems.
