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Sub-electron readout noise in a Skipper CCD fabricated on high resistivity silicon

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Abstract

The readout noise for Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs) has been the main limitation when using these detectors for measuring small amplitude signals. A scientific CCD fabricated on a high-resistivity silicon substrate utilizing a floating gate amplifier with the capability of multiple sampling of the charge signal is described in this paper. The Skipper CCD architecture and its advantages for low noise applications are discussed. A technique for obtaining sub-electron readout noise levels is presented, and its noise and signal characteristics are derived. We demonstrate that with this procedure a very low readout noise of 0.2e  −  RMS can be achieved. The contribution of other noise sources (output stage, vertical and horizontal charge transfer inefficiency, and dark current noise) are also considered. The optimum number of samples for achieving the total lowest possible noise level is obtained. This technique is applied to an X-rays experiment using a 55Fe source.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Inst. de Inv. en Ing. Eléctrica (IIIE) “Alfredo C. Desages”, Dto. Ing. Eléctrica Comp., Universidad Nacional del Sur, Av. Alem 1253 - (B8000CPB) Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Guillermo Fernández Moroni & Eduardo E. Paolini

  2. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Kirk Road and Pine Street, Batavia, Il, 60510, USA

    Guillermo Fernández Moroni, Juan Estrada, Gustavo Cancelo & H. Thomas Diehl

  3. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Guillermo Fernández Moroni

  4. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA, 94729, USA

    Stephen E. Holland

  5. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas Prov. Buenos Aires (CIC), Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Eduardo E. Paolini

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  1. Guillermo Fernández Moroni
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  2. Juan Estrada
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  3. Gustavo Cancelo
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  4. Stephen E. Holland
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  5. Eduardo E. Paolini
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  6. H. Thomas Diehl
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Correspondence to Guillermo Fernández Moroni.

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Fernández Moroni, G., Estrada, J., Cancelo, G. et al. Sub-electron readout noise in a Skipper CCD fabricated on high resistivity silicon. Exp Astron 34, 43–64 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-012-9298-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-012-9298-x

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