CCD riddle: a) signal vs time: linear; b) signal vs variance: non-linear

Mark Downing; Dietrich Baade; Peter Sinclaire; Sebastian Deiries; Fabrice Christen

doi:10.1117/12.671457

15 June 2006 CCD riddle: a) signal vs time: linear; b) signal vs variance: non-linear

Mark Downing, Dietrich Baade, Peter Sinclaire, Sebastian Deiries, Fabrice Christen

Proceedings Volume 6276, High Energy, Optical, and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy II; 627609 (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.671457
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2006, Orlando, Florida , United States

Abstract

Photon transfer curve is one of the most valuable tools for calibrating, characterizing, and optimizing the performance of CCDs. Its primary purpose is to determine the conversion gain of the CCD system, from which many of the other performance parameters such as read noise, dark current, QE, full well etc. are determined. Recent measurements on CCDs from different manufacturers have revealed that the photon transfer curve is non-linear (in excess of 15%) with the variance progressively becoming less at high signal levels than that predicted by simple photon shot noise. The puzzling thing is that the signal linearity is excellent and unaffected. This paper reports on the investigation which has isolated the source of the non-linearity to the CCD image area. Additionally, spatial autocorrelation analysis shows that the mechanism behind the non-linearity is due to spreading or sharing of charge between pixels in the image area. The authors only have a description of the phenomenon and invite all to help with an explanation.

Citation Download Citation

Mark Downing, Dietrich Baade, Peter Sinclaire, Sebastian Deiries, and Fabrice Christen "CCD riddle: a) signal vs time: linear; b) signal vs variance: non-linear", Proc. SPIE 6276, High Energy, Optical, and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy II, 627609 (15 June 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.671457

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