BitFlow to Reveal its First CoaXPress-Over-Fiber Frame Grabber at VISION Trade Fair in Stuttgart

BitFlow Claxon Fiber CPXoF frame grabber extends CoaXPress's capabilities to help machine vision system integrators reach throughput targets

BitFlow, Inc. announced today it will join more than 300 leaders in the machine vision, robotics and automation industries by participating in the VISION international trade fair in Stuttgart, Germany, October 4-6, 2022. During the fair, BitFlow will be exhibiting in Hall 10, Booth #H46 where it plans to introduce its first CoaXPress-Over-Fiber (CXPoF) frame grabber, the Claxon Fiber.

"BitFlow continues to set new milestones in frame grabber performance with our latest innovation being the Claxon Fiber designed to help system integrators meet their data transfer goals over extended distances," explained Donal Waide, Director of Sales, BitFlow, Inc. "We are proud to launch the Claxon Fiber on the world stage at VISION Stuttgart 2022. Attendees can see the Claxon Fiber in our VISION booth, along with our full lines of CXP-6, CXP-12 and CameraLink frame grabbers. BitFlow engineers will be on hand with expert advice on how to design, deploy and manage virtually any imaging system for maximum performance and efficiency."

CXPoF: Building on CXP's Benefits

The CXPoF protocol is an add-on to the CoaXPress 2.0 specification developed by the Japan Industrial Imaging Association (JIIA). Unlike previous CXP versions that relied on coaxial cables to transmit image data between cameras and host PCs, CXPoF runs the CXP-12 protocol over fiber optic cables. CXPoF leverages the advantages of fiber optics, such as fiber's extended cable lengths and immunity to electrical noise, while benefitting from progressively higher bandwidths and lower cost components that fiber can offer. In addition, because the protocol remains CXP-12, and not Ethernet or Gigabit, CXPoF imaging systems exhibit the same stability, low latency, precise triggering, and high transmission speeds that made CXP the de facto standard for the machine vision industry.

The BitFlow Claxon Fiber is a PCIe Gen3 x8 CXPoF board configured with a single port for QSFP+ hot-swappable, parallel fiber-optical/copper transceiver modules. Equipping the Claxon Fiber with a QSFP+ module provides the flexibility of running multi-mode fiber cable up to 150 meters (492 feet) between cameras and the PC, or running single-mode fiber cables a maximum of 40 kilometers (24 miles). Complex, expensive repeaters are not needed in long-distance fiber optic installations, as they are when using copper cables, therefore driving down overall system costs while removing multiple potential points of failure.

Versatile as it is powerful, the Claxon Fiber frame grabber can accommodate high-bandwidth applications ranging from multiple linescan cameras inspecting color print materials or semiconductor wafers, to area scan cameras deployed in 3D video scientific analysis or OLED defect detection. Fiber's immunity to electromagnetic interference also makes the Claxon Fiber an excellent choice for manufacturing or medical facilities subject to high levels of EMC. Space-sensitive defense and aerospace imaging systems also benefit from fiber cable's extremely compact, lightweight design and longer transmission distances.

The Claxon Fiber frame grabber features an identical architecture as previous generation BitFlow Cyton CXP or Claxon CXP frame grabbers so BitFlow customers can easily swap those units when migrating cameras from CXP to CXPoF using the same programming.

Source: BitFlow media announcement