Related papers: Sub-electron read noise at MHz pixel rates
Scientific CCDs designed in thick high resistivity silicon (Si) are excellent detectors for astronomy, high energy and nuclear physics, and instrumentation. Many applications can benefit from CCDs ultra low noise readout systems. The…
The skipper CCD is a special type of charge coupled device in which the readout noise can be reduced to sub-electron levels by averaging independent measurements of the same charge. Thus the charge in the pixels can be determined by…
The readout noise for Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs) has been the main limitation when using these detectors for measuring small amplitude signals. A readout system for a new scientific, low noise CCD is presented in this paper. The Skipper…
Image sensors with nondestructive charge readout provide single-photon or single-electron sensitivity, but at the cost of long readout times. We present a smart readout technique to allow the use of these sensors in visible-light and other…
We have developed a non-destructive readout system that uses a floating-gate amplifier on a thick, fully depleted charge coupled device (CCD) to achieve ultra-low readout noise of 0.068 e- rms/pix. This is the first time that discrete…
Low light level charge coupled devices (L3CCDs) have recently been developed, incorporating on-chip gain. They may be operated to give an effective readout noise much less than one electron by implementing an on-chip gain process allowing…
The first generation of Single electron Sensitive Read Out (SiSeRO) amplifiers, employed as on-chip charge detectors for charge-coupled devices (CCDs) have demonstrated excellent noise and spectral performance: a responsivity of around 800…
Single electron Sensitive Read Out (SiSeRO) is a novel on-chip charge detection technology that can, in principle, provide significantly greater responsivity and improved noise performance than traditional charge coupled device (CCD)…
We introduce a new output amplifier for fully-depleted thick p-channel CCDs based on double-gate MOSFETs. The charge amplifier is an n-type MOSFET specifically designed and operated to couple the fully-depleted CCD with high charge-transfer…
CMOS detectors offer many advantages over CCDs for optical and UV astronomical applications, especially in space where high radiation tolerance is required. However, astronomical instruments are most often designed for low light-level…
A novel readout architecture that uses multiple non-destructive floating-gate amplifiers to achieve sub-electron readout noise in a thick, fully-depleted silicon detector is presented. This Multi-Amplifier Sensing Charge-Coupled Device…
The non-destructive readout capability of the Skipper Charge Coupled Device (CCD) has been demonstrated to reduce the noise limitation of conventional silicon devices to levels that allow single-photon or single-electron counting. The noise…
The broad energy response, low electronic read noise, and good energy resolution have made X-ray Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs) an obvious choice for developing soft X-ray astronomical instruments over the last half century. They also come…
Current, state-of-the-art CCDs are close to being able to deliver all key performance figures for future strategic X-ray missions except for the required frame rates. Our Stanford group is seeking to close this technology gap through a…
We present characterization results and performance of a prototype Multiple-Amplifier Sensing (MAS) silicon charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor with 16 channels potentially suitable for faint object astronomical spectroscopy and low-signal,…
Multiple-Amplifier Sensing (MAS) charge-coupled devices (CCDs) have recently been shown to be promising silicon detectors that meet noise sensitivity requirements for next generation Stage-5 spectroscopic surveys and potentially, future…
The Single electron Sensitive Read Out (SiSeRO) is a novel on-chip charge detector output stage for charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensors. Developed at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, this technology uses a p-MOSFET transistor with a depleted…
Readout noise is a critical parameter for characterizing the performance of charge-coupled devices (CCDs), which can be greatly reduced by the correlated double sampling (CDS) circuit. However, conventional CDS circuit inevitably introduces…
Recently, low light level charge coupled devices (L3CCDs) capable of on-chip gain have been developed, leading to sub-electron effective readout noise, allowing for the detection of single photon events. Optical interferometry usually…
The Skipper-in-CMOS image sensor integrates the non-destructive readout capability of Skipper Charge Coupled Devices (Skipper-CCDs) with the high conversion gain of a pinned photodiode in a CMOS imaging process, while taking advantage of…