CoaXPress-over-Fiber: Gaining momentum with camera maker adoption

To greatly speed time-to-market for new products based on CoaXPress-over-Fiber from camera makers, frame grabber manufacturers and embedded vision system developers, Euresys has released a new series of IP Cores for either device/transmitter or host/receiver devices looking to fully implement the interface and underlying complete protocol. Euresys has also already released the first frame grabber to implement CoaXPress-over-Fiber with the addition of the new Coaxlink QSFP+ to its already widely used Coaxlink series of frame grabbers.

This has allowed several camera manufacturers to become early adopters of the new fiber-based protocol. Out of several companies developing new cameras based on CoaXPress-over-Fiber, some have already been open about their forthcoming new product releases planned for this year.

The first, Vision Research (USA) has already in late 2020 publicly demonstrated a prototype of their new ultra-high-speed camera series. This new model is capable of acquiring images at full 4K resolution at nearly 1,000 frames per second (fps), and by narrowing down the Region of Interest (ROI), it can achieve frame rates in excess of 500,000 fps using just two QSFP+ connections.


According to Lee Denaro, a Senior Test Engineer who serves as Systems Engineer for the Vision Research S991 CoaXPress-over-Fiber project, "Partnering with Euresys / Sensor to Image to become an early adopter of this new extension to the CoaXPress standard has been an excellent experience for us. Not only did we adapt our next generation machine vision camera designs to use the Euresys/Sensor to Image CoaXPress IP Core, we also were able to relatively quickly implement the new CoaXPress-over-Fiber (CXPoF) using their new CXPoF Bridge IP Core. This, combined with the active technical support of Euresys, allowed us to promote this new approach for broad industry adoption with the standards committees. Using their new Coaxlink QSFP+ CXPoF frame grabber and eGrabber software, we were able to realize a dual QSFP+ implementation perfectly matching our high performance machine vision cameras. Rather than requiring the use of 16 coax cables to carry the full bandwidth of our sensors to the host PC, this can now be done with just 2, much lighter and longer, fiber optic cables without the need for any additional hardware. Streamlined implementation and improved operational performance combined."
More info: https://www.phantomhighspeed.com/products/cameras/machinevision

Another camera maker, CIS Corporation (Japan) has recently seen a prototype of their new 4K/240 fps QSFP+ camera design validated. This camera is also capable of higher frame rates by specifying a smaller Region of Interest (ROI) and will be the first in a growing offering of CoaXPress-over-Fiber cameras.
"We have been using fiber optics to connect machine vision cameras to frame grabbers in Japan for many years. We are now happy to support the newly released CoaXPress-over-Fiber international standard by developing compatible cameras", says Yusuke Muraoka, President, CIS Corp, Japan.
More info: https://www.ciscorp.co.jp/

" Vieworks line of CoaXPress cameras is very successful and we see CoaXPress-over-Fiber as a way to move forward, opening up opportunities for even higher resolution and higher speed cameras", says Ryan Kyung, Sales Team Leader at Vieworks, Korea.
More info: https://vision.vieworks.com

" As early adopters of the CoaXPress interface, IO Industries (Canada) cameras and video recording systems gained praises from customers across many application areas for their cabling reliability and simplicity. We also identified many applications calling for longer cable length and increased speed, without compromising the reliable point-to-point connection, deterministic timing and high throughput offered by CoaXPress. Adopting the CoaXPress-over-Fiber protocol with a single QSFP+ optical interface for our Redwood camera family, supporting 45MP and 65MP CMOS sensors, is for IO Industries a timely, state of the art, response to our most up to date customers”, says Andrew Searle, Sales Manager at IO Industries, Canada.
More info: Redwood 45MP Features, Redwood65MP Features, www.ioindustries.com

In the coming months, we are sure to see several more camera makers announcing new models based on the CoaXPress-over-Fiber extension of the CoaXPress standard, which will see rapid adoption by the industry as a very high-performance interface over light weight and commonly available fiber optic cables and transceivers coming from the network environment. These widely available cables and components mean a much more cost-effective, reliable and non-proprietary fiber infrastructure for years to come.

“Through drafting and actively contributing to the CoaXPress-over-Fiber vision standard, Euresys confirms its role as a CoaXPress leader. We are happy to bring to the market and the industry in general, the technological leverage that allows customers and partners to imagine new vision products and applications”, says Marc Damhaut, CEO at Euresys.