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

• DOI: 10.1007/s10686-012-9298-x
• Publication Date: 2012-05-05T18:40:11Z
• Authors: Guillermo Fernánd...; Juan Estrada; Gustavo Cancelo; Stephen E. Holland; Eduardo E. Paolini; H. Thomas Diehl
• Keywords: SIGNAL (programming language); Correlated double sampling

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 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 a very low readout noise of $0.2e^{-}$ RMS. Also, we show the results using the detector in a low-energy X-ray detection experiment.<br/>16 pages, 11 figures<br/>