User`s guide

ACQUISITION MODES
SDK SECTION 4
Page 34
SECTION 4 - ACQUISITION MODES
ACQUISITION MODE TYPES
In the previous section the different ReadOut Modes (binning patterns) supported by the Andor SDK were
discussed. In addition the Andor SDK allows you to control the number and the timing details of acquisitions made
using the various binning patterns. To simplify the process of controlling these acquisitions the Andor SDK has
divided the acquisition process into several different Acquisition Modes:
• Single Scan
• Accumulate
• Kinetic Series
• Run Till Abort
• Fast Kinetics
Single Scan is the simplest form of acquisition where a single scan is captured.
Accumulate mode takes a sequence of single scans and adds them together.
Kinetic Series mode captures a sequence of single scans, or possibly, depending on the camera, a sequence of
accumulated scans.
Run Till Abort continually performs scans of the CCD until aborted.
If your system is a Frame Transfer CCD, the acquisition modes can be enhanced by setting the chip operational
mode to Frame Transfer.
In the remainder of this section we will discuss in detail what each of these modes actually are and what needs to
be specified to fully define an acquisition.
The table below summarizes the information that is needed for each acquisition mode:
MODE
EXPOSURE
TIME
ACCUMULATE
CYCLE
TIME
NO.
OF
ACCUMULATIONS
KINETIC
CYCLE
TIME
NO.
IN
KINETIC
SERIES
SINGLE SCAN X
ACCUMULATE X X X
KINETIC SERIES X X X X X
RUN TILL ABORT X X
FAST KINETICS X X X
NOTE: For the purpose of this document an acquisition is taken to mean the complete data capture
process. By contrast, a scan is a single readout of data from the CCD-Chip, i.e. a complete data
acquisition comprises the capture of one or more scans.