The QHY600 uses the latest SONY back-illuminated sensor, the IMX455, a full frame (35mm format) sensor with 3.76um pixels and native 16-bit A/D. This sensor is available in both monochrome and color versions. The sensor size is 36mm x 24mm. Ultra low dark noise.

The QHY600 is cooled CMOS camera with native 16-bit A/D on-chip. The output is real 16-bits with 65536 levels. Compared to 12-bit and 14-bit A/D, a 16-bit A/D yields higher sample resolution and the system gain will be less than 1e-/ADU with no sample error noise and very low read noise.

One benefit of the back-illuminated CMOS structure is improved full well capacity. This is particularly helpful for sensors with small pixels. Even with unbinned, 3.76um pixels, the QHY600 has a full well capacity of 49ke-. When binned 2x2 to 7.5um the full well is 196ke- and when binned 3x3 to 11um the full well is 441ke-.

The QHY600 has only 1.0 electron of read noise at high gain and 4FPS high readout speed. One electron of read noise means the camera can achieve a SNR>3 at only 4 to 6 photons. This is perfect performance when conditions are photon limited, i.e., short exposures, narrow band imaging, etc., making this large area sensor ideal for sky surveys and time domain astronomy.

The QHY600 is a back-illuminated Scientific CMOS Camera with extremely low dark current using SONY's Exmor BSI CMOS technology. In general, the fan-blade mechanical shutter will be broken if it is used 200,000 times or so, and in some specific cases it is easy to fail to switch on or off. The advantage of an electronic shutter over mechanical shutter is high reliability and stability when the observatory shoots a large number of pictures. The electronic shutter is a perfect choice for the observatory.

The round camera case design of QHY600 and the imager size is best match for RASA systems. The QHY600 supports USB3.0 and it has the GigaE interface (GigeE hardware supported and confirmed, but will active in future. The QHY600 has regulated cooling with a 2-stage TE Cooler.