Microscan Claims World's First Fully Integrated Liquid Lens Barcode Imager

Microscan, a provider of precision data acquisition and control solutions, premiers the QX Hawk, the world's first barcode imager to be fully integrated with liquid lens technology, enabling infinite focus flexibility. The QX Hawk imager easily reads any barcode or 2D symbol, including challenging 2D direct part marks (DPM), within seconds of installation.

Microscan claims that the QX Hawk is the first high performance imager to have the full flexibility to read any mark at any distance and speed in any environment, and the first to fully integrate liquid lens technology.

"By integrating the liquid lens directly into our QX Hawk, the performance advantage is tremendous and the capacity to focus at any distance is infinite," explains Bruce Scharf, Microscan's Vice President of Engineering. "Other products in the market today use liquid lens technology as an optional accessory to change focus, but at the expense of increased spherical aberration, or image distortion. Microscan's liquid lens is deeply embedded within the imaging system of QX Hawk and the optics assembly was designed around a liquid lens to allow the entire imaging system to be optimized, not just focus."

The ultra-compact, high performance imager with next generation capabilities uses Microscan's latest decoding technology to read any mark at distances from 50 to 500 mm and beyond, from a high density 3.3 mil Data Matrix to a very large linear code to a low-contrast DPM. The QX Hawk features a high resolution modular optical zoom system that, when combined with liquid lens focus control, enables a single reader to cover almost any ID application.

In addition to its compact size, the QX Hawk includes visible LED indicators, targeting laser pattern, "good read" green flash, and an EZ button for instant setup and configuration. According to Andy Zosel, Microscan's Director of Product Marketing, "The QX Hawk bridges the gap between ease of use and performance.”

As a further benefit, the QX Hawk leverages the latest dual core ARM/DSP processor and integrated Ethernet protocols to allow high speed image capture as well as real-time configuration and communication.