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, photon-limited imaging. The MAS CCD is designed to reach sub-electron readout noise by repeatedly measuring charge through a line of amplifiers during the serial transfer shifts. Using synchronized readout electronics based on the DESI CCD controller, we report a read noise of 1.03 e− rms/pix at a speed of 26 μs/pix with a single-sample readout scheme where charge in a pixel is measured only once for each output stage. At these operating parameters, we find the amplifier-to-amplifier charge transfer efficiency (ACTE) to be >0.9995 at low counts for all amplifiers but one for which the ACTE is 0.997. This charge transfer efficiency falls above 50,000 electrons for the read-noise optimized voltage configuration we chose for the serial clocks and gates. The amplifier linearity across a broad dynamic range from ∼300 to 35,000 e− was also measured to be ±2.5%. We describe key operating parameters to optimize on these characteristics and describe the specific applications for which the MAS CCD may be a suitable detector candidate.
@article{arxiv.2406.06472,
title = {Multi-Amplifier Sensing Charge-coupled Devices for Next Generation Spectroscopy},
author = {Kenneth W. Lin and Armin Karcher and Julien Guy and Stephen E. Holland and William F. Kolbe and Peter E. Nugent and Alex Drlica-Wagner and Ana M. Botti and Javier Tiffenberg},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.06472},
year = {2025}
}