A New Machine for Planarity Measurement of CCDs and Mosaics of CCDs

High quality CCD detectors are now being produced with 2048× 4096 square pixels, each 15 m on a side. Evenlarger detector areas are built with several CCDs mounted into amosaic. To be useful in an instrument the light must be in focuson all CCDs, requiring that all CCDs in a mosaic must typicallybe aligned within 30 micron of a flat plane. To achieve thisaccuracy in many cases the measurement and correction of the CCDalignment is necessary. One way allowing a surface measurement,even when the CCD is protected by a window, is to usetriangulation sensor. The principle of a triangulation sensor,its application and its implementation in a measuring machineare presented here.     

Photon counting strategies with low-light-level CCDs

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 of much less than one electron by implementing an on-chip gain process allowing the detection of individual photons. However, the gain mechanism is stochastic and so introduces significant extra noise into the system. In this paper we examine how best to process the output signal from an L3CCD so as to minimize the contribution of stochastic noise, while still maintaining photometric accuracy.
We achieve this by optimizing a transfer function that translates the digitized output signal levels from the L3CCD into a value approximating the photon input as closely as possible by applying thresholding techniques. We identify several thresholding strategies and quantify their impact on the photon counting accuracy and the effective signal-to-noise ratio.
We find that it is possible to eliminate the noise introduced by the gain process at the lowest light levels. Reduced improvements are achieved as the light level increases up to about 20 photon pixel⁻¹ and above this there is negligible improvement. Operating L3CCDs at very high speeds will keep the photon flux low, giving the best improvements in signal-to-noise ratio.     

Calibration of flight model CCDs for CoRoT mission

CoRoT (Convection, Rotation and Transit) is a mission of high-accuracy photometry with two scientific programmes: asteroseismology and planet finding, using CCDs as detectors. Ten 2048×4096 CCDs manufactured by E2V (42-80) were calibrated on Meudon test bench in order to choose the best ones for flight. A very high instrument stability is needed. Taking into account the environmental perturbations (temperature, attitude control system jitter, radiations, etc.) we studied sensitivity of CCD gain and quantum efficiency to temperature and sensitivity of the output signal to bias voltages. Special attention was paid to pixel capacity and noise sources coming from dark current and pixel response non-uniformity. The calibration results together with the expected voltages and temperature fluctuations are compared with the specifications.     

Fabrication of Thinned CCDs at UCO/Lick Observatory

The University of California Observatories/Lick Observatory (UCO/Lick) has undertaken to produce science-grade CCDs for current and future instruments to be used on UCO/Lick and UCO/Keck telescopes. In this paper we describe the techniques developed and the progress achieved to date.     

Measurements of charge diffusion in deep-depletion CCDs by optical diffraction

The charge diffusion is measured in back illuminated, fully depleted, 250 μm thick CCDs by imaging the diffraction pattern of a double slit. The CCDs studied are the focal plane detectors for the dark energy camera (DECam) instrument currently under construction for the dark energy survey (DES). The results presented here indicate that the dispersion of charge due to diffusion can be kept below the DES specification ( σ _d ?<?7.0 μm ).     

Charge coupled devices (CCDs) in X-ray astronomy

The application of CCDs to X-ray imaging and spectroscopy for astronomy is described. The requirements which differ markedly from those of traditional optical applications are highlighted. Results of recent research programs to optimize CCD X-ray response are presented. It is shown that very high quantum efficiencies and Fano noise limited energy resolutions can be obtained. A number of issues related to the practical implementation of future instruments are reviewed.     

In-flight Performance of the Advanced Camera for Surveys CCDs

The Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), installed in the Hubble Space telescope in March 2002, will significantly extend HST's deep, survey imaging capabilities. ACS has met, or exceeded, all of its key performance specifications. In this paper we briefly review the in-flight performance of the instrument's CCD detectors and preview early ACS science observations. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The effect of the prompt particle environment at L2 on optical CCDs for astronomy and astrophysics

The increasing number of probes carrying large focal planes consisting of many charge-coupled devices (CCDs), planned to be sent to the L2 Lagrangian point, 1.5 million kilometres from Earth in the next 15 years, implies that a detailed study of the effects of the prompt particle environment at L2 on CCDs is required. The focus of this study will be on CCDs for optical astronomy, astrometry and photometric applications. This study will be of particular interest to GAIA the European Space Agency's (ESA) cornerstone optical astronomy mission to further explore and map sections of our galaxy in greater detail. The results will also have implications for future X-ray astronomy missions like the X-ray Evolving Universe Spectroscopy Mission (XEUS). Both the above missions will require large area focal planes incorporating many CCD detectors.The sources of the instrument background are both solar and galactic and if a probe is launched around the peak in the next solar cycle (2010), the possible false detection rate or the amount of data that could be lost during a mission must be determined. This paper presents measured data for a spacecraft in a geostationary orbit, specifically Geosynchronous Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) data, and makes predictions of the flux and energy of the particle environment at L2. The solar and galactic cosmic ray background was determined by using the Cosmic Ray Effects on Micro-Electronics or CREME96 code. A comparison was then made between the GOES data and the output from the CREME96 code in order to make predictions about the L2 environment.     

Charged-particle induced background expected in X-ray detecting CCDs in highly eccentric earth orbits

Charged particle fluxes on satellites in highly eccentric Earth orbits are studied, using data from ISEE1 and EXOSAT missions. The effects of minimum-ionizing particles, low-energy electrons and secondary radiation produced by these particles on CCDs used as X-ray detectors are identified. A technique to discriminate events caused by minimum-ionizing particles from X-ray events is proposed. The need for a deflecting system against low-energy electrons with focusing X-ray optics is demonstrated. An expected secondary radiation spectrum behind a typical detector shielding based on Monte-Carlo-simulations is presented. For the EPIC detectors on XMM, detection rates due to this radiation environment are estimated.     

Improvements for group delay fringe tracking

Group delay fringe tracking using spectrally dispersed fringes is suitable for stabilizing the optical path difference in ground-based astronomical optical interferometers in low light level situations. We discuss the performance of group delay tracking algorithms when the effects of atmospheric dispersion, high-frequency atmospheric temporal phase variations, non-ideal path modulation, non-ideal spectral sampling, and the detection artifacts introduced by electron-multiplying CCDs are taken into account, and we present ways in which the tracking capability can be optimized in the presence of these effects.     

On Cross-talk Correction of Images from Multiple-port CCDs

Multi-channel CCD read-out, which is an option offered at most optical observatories, can significantly reduce the time spent on reading the detector. The penalty of using this option is the so-called amplifier cross-talk, which causes contamination across the output amplifiers, typically at the level of 1:10 000.This can be a serious problem for applications where high precision and/or high contrast is of importance. We represent an analysis of amplifier cross-talk for two instruments – FORS1 at the ESO VLT telescope Antu (Paranal) and DFOSC at the Danish 1.54 m telescope (La Silla) – and present a post-processing method for removing the imprint of cross-talk. It is found that cross-talk may significantly contaminate high-precision photometry in crowded fields, but it can be effectively eliminated during data reduction. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Multidimensional indexing tools for the virtual observatory

The last decade has seen a dramatic change in the way astronomy is carried out. The dawn of the the new microelectronic devices, like CCDs has dramatically extended the amount of observed data. Large, in some cases all sky surveys emerged in almost all the wavelength ranges of the observable spectrum of electromagnetic waves. This large amount of data has to be organized, published electronically and a new style of data retrieval is essential to exploit all the hidden information in the multiwavelength data. Many statistical algorithms required for these tasks run reasonably fast when using small sets of in‐memory data, but take noticeable performance hits when operating on large databases that do not fit into memory. We utilize new software technologies to develop and evaluate fast multidimensional indexing schemes that inherently follow the underlying, highly non‐uniform distribution of the data: they are layered uniform indices, hierarchical binary space partitioning, and sampled flat Voronoi tessellation of the data. These techniques can dramatically speed up operations such as finding similar objects by example, classifying objects or comparing extensive simulation sets with observations. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

CCD Technology

Charge-coupled devices (CCDs) continue to reign supreme in the realm of imaging out to 1 μm, with the steady improvement of performance and the introduction of innovative features. This review is a survey of recent developments in the technology and the current limits on performance. Device packaging for large, tiled focal-plane arrays is also described. Comparisons between CCDs and the emerging CMOS imagers are highlighted in terms of process technology and performance.     

RTS2中新CCD类型扩展方法

CCD是天文望远镜中最常见的观测终端设备,也是望远镜自主控制系统中的重要组成部分。随着天文望远镜自主观测需求的不断出现以及技术的快速发展,开源的RTS2软件系统成为目前该领域研究中受到较多关注的系统之一。但RTS2支持的CCD设备较为有限,同时控制接口约定也相对固定。在针对部分特殊的CCD设备(如LAMOST中采用的32台CCD设备、选址用的部分CCD设备)时,仅实现原有类的方法是不够的。在深入分析RTS2源码的基础上,重点从参数、命令、协议扩展方面研究基于原有的Camera类,通过继承的方法构造新的CCD类型,实现对LAMOST项目的 CCD控制,取得了较好的效果,对在RTS2中集成望远镜系统其他类型设备也有较好的参考价值。     

A predictive model for space-based X-ray ccd degradation

The first generation of X-ray telescopes to use Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs) is being launched this decade. With a read noise of a few electrons, CCDs provide Fano-limited spectral resolution across the soft X-ray band (0.1 – 10 keV). However, degradation of resolution due to charge transfer losses becomes noticeable as Charge Transfer Inefficiency (CTI) increases to 10^–5. In this paper, we present a model which calculates the effects of radiation damage in low Earth orbit in order to predict CCD lifetimes over which good charge transfer is maintained. The model presented here considers damage mechanisms within the CCD, environmental conditions in which the CCD operates, and experiment shielding. We find that the predicted CTI approaches 10^–5 after a one to two year mission for the flight instruments considered here.     

Very Large Format Back Illuminated CCDs

The University of Arizona Imaging Technology Laboratory has processed several types of very large format (>4K × 4K pixel) charge coupled devices for low light level scientific applications. These back illuminated devices were produced from frontside die fabricated by or for Fairchild Imaging Systems, Semiconductor Technology Associates, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Kodak. A Philips 7K × 9K frontside device has also been processed using similar techniques. The backside sensors yield >90% quantum efficiency (QE). All devices show excellent charge transfer efficiency (CTE > 0.999997) at operating temperatures (typically –100 °C). Devices specifically designed for low signal applications have been demonstrated with less than 4 electrons read noise. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Achieving sub electron noise in CCD systems by means of digital filtering techniques that lower 1/f pixel correlated noise

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 present work shows how sub electron noise CCD images can be achieved using digital signal processing techniques. These techniques allow 0.4 electrons of noise at readout bandwidths of up to 10?Kpixels per second while keeping the full CCD spatial resolution and signal dynamic range.     

CCD的近红外敏化技术

理论上硅ＣＣＤ在０ ．１ｎｍ 到１．１μｍ 之间都有响应, 但通常此种器件在８００ｎｍ 以后量子效率下降明显, 一般会小于５０ ％ 。其中最主要的原因是近红外光子的吸收深度大于ＣＣＤ 的外延层厚度, 使大量光子穿透整个器件。显然增加外延层的厚度是解决这一问题的良好途径。但随着外延层的增加, 必须使用高阻抗的材料, 否则会明显的减低分辨率。另外增透膜的使用也会使量子效率大幅度提高, 而且有效的减弱了干涉条纹的影响。新型Ｐ沟道Ｎ 衬底全耗尽高阻ＣＣＤ的出现, 使得量子效率在１μｍ 仍然接近６０％ 。     

Arc(let)s in clusters of galaxies

Summary The discovery of giant gravitational arcs and arclets in rich clusters of galaxies is one of the major events of the last decade in observational cosmology. High resolution imaging in subarcsecond seeing conditions of giant arcs gives information on the cluster potential and the matter distribution within the inner regions of clusters. Ultra-deep photometry of the clusters reveals numerous arclets with an orthoradial orientation from which one can infer the projected mass profile at large distance and the redshift distribution of the faintest distant background galaxies which are unobservable with standard spectroscopic techniques. Thanks to the strong magnification factor, the spectroscopy of giant arcs is possible and we can therefore observe with great detail a few very distant galaxies. Individual redshifts of arcs give the total mass of the lens, whereas the spectroscopy of a large sample of arcs also gives information on the redshift distribution of distant galaxies. It is obvious that cluster lenses play an important role as large natural telescopes for probing the distant universe. Finally, observations of multiple-arc configurations due to different sources may even constrain the cosmological parameters. We are now confident that gravitational lensing will be an essential tool within the next decade for observing very high redshift galaxies and the weak shear generated by the largest structures of the universe.In this review we summarize the present status of gravitational arc(let)s surveys with particular emphasis on the most important issues which have arisen during the last years and on the prospects for the future, regarding the rebirth of the Hubble Space Telescope, the coming of a new generation of Very Large Telescopes, and the development of large CCDs in the optical and the infrared.     

The Ultimate CCD for Laser Guide Star Wavefront Sensing on Extremely Large Telescopes

All of the extremely large telescopes (ELTs) will utilize sodium laser guide star (LGS) adaptive optics (AO) systems. Most of these telescopes plan to use the Shack-Hartmann approach for wavefront sensing. In these AO systems, the laser spots in subapertures at the edge of the pupil will suffer from spot elongation due to the 10 km extent of the sodium layer and the large separation from the projection laser. This spot elongation will severely degrade the performance of standard geometry wavefront sensing systems. In this paper, we present a CCD with custom pixel morphology that aligns the pixels of each subaperture with the radial extension of the LGS spot. This CCD design will give better performance than a standard geometry CCDs for continuous wave lasers. In addition, this CCD design is optimal for a pulsed sodium laser. The pixel geometry enables each subaperture to follow a laser pulse traversing the sodium layer, providing optimal sampling of a limited number of detected photons. In addition to novel pixel layout, this CCD will also incorporate experimental JFET sense amplifiers and use CMOS design approaches to simplify the routing of biases, clocks and video output. This CCD will attain photon-noise limited performance at high frame rates, and is being incorporated in the plans for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT).