FTDI Offers The FT602 for Industrial Camera, Which Helps Gain Substantially Elevated Video Quality but Still Run At 60fps Frame Rates

Industrial Cameras, also known as Computer Vision (CV) Cameras, are specialized cameras used for industrial applications. These cameras are used in a number of industries for a variety of applications. These applications include inspection, measurement, quality control and automation.

Industrial Cameras, unlike regular cameras, are made to withstand harsh industrial environments as they are usually integrated into industrial machines and production lines. This means that Industrial Cameras must be extremely durable, reliable, designed to operate continuously and perform for extended periods of time. They must be capable of capturing high-speed and high-resolution images, which allows for detailed inspection and analysis of fast-moving objects.

Depending on the application, an industrial Camera may have some specialized features such as Infrared Imaging, High Dynamic Range (HDR) capabilities, along with various lens options that may be required for different image needs. High-end Industrial Cameras may also include built-in image processing capabilities which allow for real-time analysis of the images.

For this type of application FTDI offers the FT602.

The FT602 is a FIFO interface to SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.1 Gen 1) USB Video Class (UVC) bridge chip, which supports the streaming of video content from high-definition camera equipment. This means that imaging systems which would have previously only been capable of delivering relatively low-resolution material can gain substantially elevated video quality but still run at 60fps frame rates.

Some key hardware features of FT602 are:

    • Supports USB 3.1 GEN 1 Super Speed (5Gbps) / USB 2.0 High Speed (480Mbps)

    • Supports USB Transfer Types: Control/Bulk/Interrupt

    • Supports UVC version 1.1

    • Supports multi-channel FIFO interface

    • Supports up to 4 video input channels on the FIFO bus

    • Supports 2 parallel slave FIFO bus protocols, 245 FIFO and Multi-channel FIFO mode, with a date burst rate up to 400MB/second with 32 bit parallel interface

    • Built-in 16kB FIFO data buffer RAM

    • Built-in I²C master interface for video device configuration

    • Supports multi voltage I/O: 1.8V, 2.5V and 3.3V

    • User programmable USB descriptors

    • Industrial operating temperature range: -40 to 85℃

The FT602 is designed to transfer uncompressed YUV422 video data from the 32bit FIFO interface to the USB 3.1 bus. It supports resolutions and frame rates up to 1920×1080@60 frames per second.

In FT600 multi-channel mode, up to 4 UVC channels of video may be transported. It can be used in those applications which require high resolution imaging devices. This makes it perfect for interfacing with the Industrial Camera system.

Below is a block diagram example of how the FTDI device FT602 can be integrated into an Industrial Camera system.

In this system, FT602 plays the role of a USB 3.0 to FIFO bridge, connected the host to the FPGA that handles the operation of the camera. FT602 simplifies the integration of this system by providing a reliable high-speed communication link between the cameras and the host system, with the FPGA handling the intricate tasks of data processing and control.

The high-speed USB 3.0 interface of FT602 is essential for transferring large amounts of data quickly, which is a high priority when using high-resolution images or video streams for industrial applications. The FIFO interface between the FTPGA and FT602 is also of equal importance. The FIFO (First-In-First-Out) buffer serves as a temporary storage space for the data that is transferred between the FPGA and FT602. This helps manage the data flow between the two.

Recommended ICs:

FT602